Watch: South Zone’s Rohan Kunnummal struck a rapid 68-ball century in the Deodhar Trophy final against East Zone today (August 3), and celebrated it in style, copying Virat Kohli’s ‘my-bat-does-the-talking’ celebration.

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South Zone won the toss and chose to bat at the Cricket Association Puducherry Siechem Ground in the Deodhar Trophy final against East Zone. Their decision was vindicated by the opening pair of Mayank Agarwal and Kunnummal.

As captain Agarwal held one end up and anchored the innings, Kunnummal took on the bowlers right from the start. He reached his fifty off 34 balls, in the 10th over of the innings, hitting Bengal seamer Akash Deep for two consecutive fours.

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Kunnummal kept going at the same pace after the first powerplay, and took exactly 34 more deliveries to score for the 50 runs to reach his hundred. As with his half-century, he struck two consecutive boundaries to reach the three-figure mark, this time off Riyan Parag.

He followed it up with the ‘my-bat-does-the-talking’ celebration, mimicking Kohli’s celebration from the Perth Test in 2018 after he reached his century against Australia.

[caption id=”attachment_427991″ align=”alignnone” width=”725″]Virat Kohli celebrates his century against Australia in Perth, 2018. Virat Kohli celebrates his century against Australia in Perth, 2018.[/caption]

This was Kunnummal’s third fifty-plus score in the tournament, and his first century, taking his overall tally to 311 from six innings at an average of 62.20 and strike rate of 124.

By the time Kunnummal was dismissed Utkarsh Singh for 107 off 75 balls, he had taken South Zone to 181-1 in just 24.4 overs. They failed to capitalise on the platform laid by the openers and eventually finished their innings at 328-8, scoring just 147 runs in their last 25.2 overs.

However, Vidwath Kaverappa and Vasuki Koushik soon reduced East Zone to 14-3. At the time of writing, East Zone were 35-3 in 8.3 overs, with Sudip Gharami (10) and captain Saurabh Tiwary (10) at the crease.

Watch Rohan Kunnummal slam a rapid century and celebrate his century, Virat Kohli style:

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