Birthday boy Virat Kohli scripted history and finally emulated great Sachin Tendulkar's all-time World record of 49 ODI century in the World Cup clash against South Africa at the Eden Garden in Kolkata on November 5, Sunday. Kohli took just 277 innings to reach this massive milestone. Kohli's birthday couldn't have been bigger than this as took 119 balls to bring his historic century on the day he turned 35.
Notably, the batting maestro notched his first ever ODI century on the same venue 14 years back in the match against Sri Lanka in 2009.
Kohli's fellow teammate and India skipper Rohit Sharma is third in the list of most ODI centuries with 31 against his name followed by Australian legend Ricky Ponting (30) and former Sri Lanka's star opener Sanath Jayasuriya (28).
This was king Kohli's second century in the ongoing World Cup as the first one came against Bangladesh in Pune when he scored an unbeaten 103 to help India win the match.
In total, the 35-year-old scored his 79th international century. Besides ODIs, he has notched 29 tons in Tests and one in T20Is.
Kohli has now surpassed Kumar Sangakkara in tally of most fifty-plus scores in ODIs, achieving his 119th score of fifty or more. This milestone places him above Sangakkara's 118 and just behind Sachin Tendulkar, who leads the record with 145 instances of 50-plus scores in ODIs.
Additionally, Kohli has surpassed the 6,000-run mark in ODIs on home soil while playing against South Africa, positioning him second only to Tendulkar in this feat. Previously, Kohli had also moved past Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara on the leaderboard to become the third-highest run-scorer in the history of the Men’s ODI World Cup. On his 35th birthday, Kohli finds himself trailing only behind the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Australia’s Ricky Ponting in the total number of World Cup runs scored. Moreover, Kohli joined an elite group, becoming the 17th batsman to score 500 or more runs in a single edition of the men’s ODI World Cup. With this achievement, he becomes the third Indian to reach this mark, joining the ranks of Sachin Tendulkar, who has accomplished this feat twice, and Rohit Sharma.
From the word go he looked in good touch taking on the South African bowlers whenever required. His arrival at the pitch came shortly after the dismissal of Rohit, who had earlier scored a brisk 40 from 26 balls. Not long after Kohli's entrance, Shubman Gill, his opening partner, was skillfully dismissed by a remarkable ball from Keshav Maharaj.
Maharaj did trouble Kohli in his initial overs as he consistently outplayed the run-machine and nearly had him caught behind, which led to an unsuccessful review by wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, who believed he had detected a slight edge from his bat. After losing two wickets in quick succession Kohli, together with Shreyas Iyer, who scored a valuable 77, set about reconstructing India's innings with a focus on keeping the scoreboard ticking over through smart singles and twos.
Kohli went on to score an unbeaten 101 off 121 balls riding on 10 fours with a strike rate of 83.47, to help India post a big total of 326/5.
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