India’s young and flamboyant batter Ishan Kishan played a terrific knock against South Africa in the 2nd ODI match, however, he missed out on his maiden international century by 7 runs. The southpaw looked at his very best playing against the Proteas in the second ODI against South Africa at JSCA Stadium in Ranchi. Chasing the target of 279 runs, Ishan walked out to bat after the dismissal of Shikhar Dhawan and took the game by storm.
Ishan formed a solid partnership of a crucial 161-run stand with Shreyas Iyer for the third wicket. They both started to attack the South African spinners and Ishan Kishan started smashing the Proteas bowlers to all the corners of the ground. Ishan got to his half-century off 60 balls and looked all set to score his maiden ODI hundred, however, his hopes were crushed after he was dismissed by Reeza Hendricks.
After his dismissal, Kishan was visibly disappointed as he went on his knees and missed his century. He was dismissed after scoring 93 runs off 84 balls with the help of four fours and seven sixes.
Later, after the game, during the post-match presentation, Ishan Kishan talked about his performance and expressed how he feels that there is no need to rotate strikes when one can hit sixes effortlessly. He said:
“Some players have the strength to rotate the strike, my strength is to hit sixes. I hit sixes effortlessly and not many can do that. If I do the job by hitting sixes, there’s no need to think about rotating the strike much,”
He added: “If your strength is hitting sixes then go for it, what’s the need of rotating the strike just for the sake of it. But yes there will be time when rotating the strike would be key with wickets falling at the other end,” Kishan said.
“Obviously rotation is very important. Seven runs, I could have taken singles and gone for the century but I never go into a zone where I’ve to play for myself. If I think of my individual score, when representing my country, then I’m letting down the fans.”
This isn’t the first time that Ishan has missed out on a well-deserved century. It was in IPL 2020 when the Mumbai Indians opener was dismissed for 99 runs in their chase of 202 runs against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
