Adelaide Oval: Virat Kohli's happy hunting ground that makes him "feel at home"

Nov 02, 2022

Adelaide [Australia], November 2 : Star Indian batter Virat Kohli said on Wednesday that he loves playing at Adelaide Oval and the venue makes him "feel at home".
Fifties from Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, superb bowling spells by bowlers helped India clinch a 5-run victory over Bangladesh in a rain-curtailed clash of Group 2, Super 12 match of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Wednesday.
"I love playing at this ground. This makes me feel at home. When I come to Adelaide, I am meant to enjoy myself and keep batting," said Virat in a post-match presentation.
Virat Kohli indeed loves playing at Adelaide Oval and his record here is incredible.
In his 10 matches at the venue, Virat has scored 907 runs at an average of 75.58. He has scored five centuries and three fifties at this venue, with his best individual score being 141. He is India's highest run-scorer at the venue.
Also, Virat has second highest runs at the venue by a non-Australian player. The best non-Australian player at Adelaide Oval is West Indies great Brian Lara, who has scored 940 runs at an average of 67.14 in 11 matches with three tons and three fifties. Ricky Ponting has the most runs scored by a batter at the venue, having scored 2,188 runs in 32 matches.
Virat Kohli scored his maiden Test century at this venue. He scored 116 against Australia during a series back in January 2012. He ended as India's leading run-scorer in that series, with a total of 300 runs.
At the same venue in 2014, Virat scored centuries in both innings (115 and 141) against Australia in the first Test back in December 2014. Though India lost the match by 48 runs and series as well, Kohli thrashing top-class bowlers like Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Lyon is fondly remembered by fans.
At this venue, Virat Kohli has a World Cup hundred against arch-rivals Pakistan, that he scored back in 2015 in a winning cause.
In his first T20I at this venue back in January 2016, Virat Kohli scored a match-winning 90* against Australia, which also earned him the 'Man of the Match' title.
During India's 2018-19 tour to Australia, Virat led India to a win in the first Test of the series that they won 2-1 in December 2018, their first-ever series win in Australia.
In the ODI series that followed in January 2019, Kohli scored a match-winning 104 to level the the series, which they won later by 2-1.
Coming to the match with Bangladesh, with three wins in their hands out of four matches, India are the Group 2 table topper with six points. On the other hand, Bangladesh are in third place with four points.
Put to field first by Bangladesh, India posted 184/6 in their 20 overs. Virat (64*) and KL Rahul (50) posted the fifties for India while Suryakumar Yadav also scored a quickfire 30 off 16 balls. Virat and KL had 67-run stand for the second wicket.
Hasan Mahmud (3/47) and skipper Shakib al Hasan (2/33) took wickets for Bangladesh. Chasing 185, Bangladesh was off to an explosive start. Rain interrupted action when they were at 66/0 in seven overs. The match was restarted with revised target cut short to 169 runs and overs slimmed down to 16.
This break proved to be vital for Men in Blue as it broke Bangladesh's rhythm. They started to lose wickets quickly, including Litton Das for 60 off 27 balls. Though Nurul Hasan (25*) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (21) contributed some useful scores, Bangladesh fell five runs short of the target.
Arshdeep Singh (2/38) and Hardik Pandya (2/28) delivered good spells. Mohammad Shami also took a wicket.
Virat was given 'Man of the Match' award for his match-winning fifty.