Former India's star cricketer and World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir, while commentating for Star Sports during the World Cup match between India and South Africa revealed the reason behind his decision to sacrifice his Player of the Match award to Virat Kohli back in 2009.
Kohli, who scored his maiden ODI century 14 years back at the Eden Gardens, went on to script history and match the great Sachin Tendulkar's World Cup record of 49th ODI century in the match against South Africa on November 5, Sunday.
Gambhir walked down the memory lane and narrated his selfless act. "People don’t give compliments, that’s why I don’t take compliments. If I was in place of Kohli and someone would have done it for me, it would have been very memorable. You hit many hundreds, but the first century would be closest. We were 20/2 and a youngster hit a hundred," Gambhir said, as quoted by MyKhel.
The partnership between Kohli and Gambhir in that match was nothing short of spectacular. They put up a stellar 224-run stand for the third wicket at the Eden Gardens, pulling the team out of a precarious situation at 23/2. Kohli's contribution was a pivotal 107 runs from 114 balls, complemented by Gambhir's commanding 150 off 137 balls, leading to a triumphant pursuit of a 316-run target.
Fast forward to the World Cup 2023, Kohli is dazzling with the bat in the ongoing showpiece event. Kohli turned 35 on November 5, Sunday. Kohli's birthday couldn't have been bigger than this as went on to match the World Record of most centuries in the ODIs. Kohli cracked an unbeaten 101 off 121 balls in the World Cup match against South Africa at the Eden Gardens to equal Tendulkar's all-time record. Kohli took just 277 innings to reach this massive milestone.
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.
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