PERTH: Rohit Sharma may not have embraced the vagaries of Test cricket yet, but he certainly knows how to live the high life in white-ball cricket. The India opener made hay on a true surface to hammer his ninth one-day hundred, fourth against the hosts and overall third Down Under, in the series opener at the WACA The 28-year-old, who promised to fight fire with fire on this tour, didn't step back an inch as he struck an unbeaten 171, the second highest score at this venue, falling short of David Warner's 178 that came against minnows Afghanistan in the 2015 World Cup. His effort, unfortunately, wasn't enough to get his team a win. It was the highest score posted against Australia on their home turf, beating Viv ian Richards' 36-year-old record. His last four ODI hundreds have all been above 150.The first Indian to score a hundred in an ODI on this ground, Rohit's innings was poetry and prose rolled into one as he mixed brutal hitting with some sublime strokeplay in his 207-run stand with Virat Kohli. His plan was simple, to hit the ball with the strong breeze that blows here. Five of his sixes came over long on.The boundary, too, was shorter on that side and it didn't matter where the Aussie bowlers pitched the deliveries - Rohit used his supple wrists to manipulate the field. He scored 113 runs through the leg side. The Mumbai batsman, who brought up 1000 runs against Australia from 19 matches, struck 13 fours and seven sixes in his 163-ball innings.An astonishing feature of Rohit's batting was that he preferred the leg-side and hit just one boundary on the other, that too a straightish off drive. Captain MS Dhoni, while lauding Rohit's efforts, said the batsman now needed to carry his good form through the series. "Whenever a batsman plays a long innings, the most important thing is how he carries on once he gets to 50, then how he carries on once he gets to 100."Most of the time when Rohit crosses 100-110, he scores quite big and that's always good. When you are making runs you should ensure you make as many as you can - that will benefit the team too. He is one of the players in the team who can play all the shots, exploit the field well, and hit effortlessly," Dhoni said. "He batted very well and it's important that after a good start he does well in the whole series and carries this form forward."Rohit's innings in numbers- 4 150-plus innings recorded by Rohit Sharma. He is the fourth batsman to accomplish the feat in ODIs, joining Sachin Tendulkar (5), Sanath Jayasuriya (4) and Chris Gayle (4).- 171 Unbeaten runs scored by Rohit Sharma, a record for the highest individual innings by a batsman vs Australia in Australia in ODIs, outstripping the 153* by Vivian Richards for West Indies in Melbourne on Dec 9, 1979. It's also the second-higest individual score ever at the WACA, after David Warner's 178 against Afghanistan in the 2015 World Cup5.- 19 Innings needed by Rohit Sharma to complete 1000 ODI runs against Australia, the fastest. He beat both Tendulkar and Brian Lara , who needed 20 innings. His average of 68.46 is the best by any batsman with 500 or more runs against Australia.- 3 ODI centuries for Rohit Sharma in Australia, the joint-highest by an Indian, along with VVS Laxman. This was Rohit's fourth century against Australia; only Sachin Tendulkar (9) and Desmond Haynes (6) have hit more ODI tons against Australia.