One man changed everything.
Until Virat Kohli reeled off back-to-back hundreds in Ranchi and Raipur, Visakhapatnam's third ODI was drifting towards indifference.
Now, the match has become a sellout sensation, with ticket demand surging so dramatically that the Andhra Cricket Association declaring it has 'hardly seen anything like this'.
His back-to-back hundreds in Ranchi and Raipur on November 30 and December 3 flipped the script almost instantly.
'The first phase of tickets went on sale on November 28. The response wasn't good,' Y Venkatesh from the Andhra Cricket Association's media and operations team told The Indian Express newspaper.
'But after Kohli's hundred at Ranchi, the second and third phases vanished in minutes. Nothing was left unsold.'
Even steep prices ranging from Rs 1,200 to Rs 18,000 made no difference once Kohli rediscovered his supreme ODI touch.
Much of the frenzy stems from his staggering record in Visakhapatnam, where he averages 97.83 in seven ODIs, with three centuries, a 99 and a 65.
By the time the team landed in Visakhapatnam on Thursday night, the frenzy had only intensified. The city now braces for a packed Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA stadium, with Virat Kohli once again at the centre of the storm.
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