Rohit Sharma arrives to the party with a dazzling century in Delhi

The Indian skipper led the run-chase against Afghanistan and notched up several historic records on the night.

There are few better sights in world cricket than Rohit Sharma at his glorious best. The Cricket World Cup group stage encounter between India and Afghanistan at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi had been billed as the “homecoming of Virat Kohli.” But it was the Indian skipper who stole the limelight from the local boy who has a pavillion in the stadium named after him with a display of class and grace of the highest order.

Of course, Kohli did manage an unbeaten half-century here to add to his match-turning knock of 85 against Australia in the opener. But in only his second World Cup game in the city he has grown up in (with the previous innings being a paltry 12 off 20 balls against the Netherlands 12 years ago), he pretty much played second fiddle to Rohit Sharma.

The Delhi pitch looked like a belter to bat on from the word go. The ball came nicely on to the bat and Hashmatullah Shahidi and Amatullah Omarzai of Afghanistan made good use of it, spraying boundaries around the ground and finding the gaps with ease.

However, whatever support he may have found from the track, it always seemed like he was batting on a different pitch altogether. The moment India’s ‘Hitman’ arrived to the crease and started letting his wrists loose, it felt like Afghanistan’s testing target of 273 essentially turned into match practice for the Men in Blue.

The 36-year-old treated the pace bowlers with plenty of disdain and dispatched the ball into the crowds in the stands more times than we could count. The introduction of spin with the wily Rashid Khan and the young Mujeeb-ur-Rehman was also met with the same result: flicks and pulls for boundaries and maximums.

At the post-match presentation, he mentioned that the assault on the bowlers had been pre-meditated all along. "It was a good pitch to bat on," he said. "I was backing myself to play my natural game. I knew once you get your eye in, the wicket is only going to get easier and easier… It's important not to lose that mindset of trying to put that pressure on the opposition.

"I know when I'm batting at the top of the order, it's my duty and my job to get that start that we want - especially in the chase - and then put the team into a comfortable position as much as possible… When you get days like this, you've got to make it count and make it big."

After the six-ball duck in the World Cup opener against Australia in Chennai, Rohit was here to make a statement. He accomplished exactly that by registering the fastest century by an Indian in World Cup cricket. He got to the three-figure-mark in just 63 deliveries, overtaking Kapil Dev’s previous best record by nine balls.

It was also his seventh century in World Cups for India and in doing so, the boy from Mumbai overtook his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, who had held the previous record of the most centuries in this prestigious competition with six tons in 44 innings. Rohit, of course, has managed to get there in just 19 innings and in only three World Cup editions!

Those weren’t the only records he had trumped in Delhi. With the help of five sixes that night, he also overtook Christopher Henry Gayle and now holds the apex spot when it comes to hitting the most sixes in men’s international cricket. Over the course of his glorious career so far, the Indian opener has slammed 556 maximums. Rohit and Gayle are the only two players with over 500 career sixes to their name.

By the time he got done with his onslaught of 134 off 84 deliveries, the match was in the bag for India and all the local boy Virat Kohli had to do was to see his side past the finish line. He achieved exactly that with a glorious straight drive off Omarzai that raced to the boundary.

The crowd had been singing his songs all evening but it was the arrival of Rohit Sharma to the party that added a footnote to what has been a successful start for the hosts: Make no mistakes, India are still the favourites to go all the way!