Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar himself wants Virat Kohli to break his record of 49 ODI centuries and reach the landmark of 50 ODI hundred in the “next few days”. Tendulkar congratulated Kohli on equalling his record of 49 ODI hundreds, and wished that Kohli soon break his record in the coming days, meaning in the coming matches with the World Cup 2023 into its final phase.
At the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, on Sunday, Virat Kohli got to his 49th ODI hundred, on his 35th birthday, in India’s World Cup 2023 group-stage fixture against South Africa.
He equaled Tendulkar’s long-standing record that has stood for 11 years with Tendulkar’s last ODI century coming in 2012. Given the form Virat Kohli is batting in this year and in the ongoing World Cup 2023, he is likely to notch up another century – which would be his 50th ODI ton, making him the first player to do so – in this tournament. Sachin Tendulkar and the Indians fans are hoping that that century comes in the knockouts.
The 50-year-old Sachin Tendulkar tweeted: “Well played Virat. It took me 365 days to go from 49 to 50 earlier this year. I hope you go from 49 to 50 and break my record in the next few days. Congratulations!!”
” It was a wicket that was tricky to bat on”: Virat Kohli
Talking about his innings, Kohli asserted that it wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on and credited Rohit Sharma for giving India a cracking start with his 40 off 24 balls. Then, Virat Kohli shared a partnership of 134 (158) with Shreyas Iyer, who scored 77 runs in 87 balls.
With Virat Kohli holding one end, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja played useful, quickfire cameos. Suryakumar scored 22 runs in 14 balls and Jadeja scored 29 runs in 15 balls. Kohli remained not out on 101* off 121 balls.
Kohli said: It was a wicket that was tricky to bat on, we got a great start from Rohit and Shubman, my job was to keep it going on. The ball started gripping and turning after the 10th over, it slowed down and then my role was to bat deep with the others playing around me. That was what was communicated to me by the team management, Shreyas played well and we got a few more runs towards the end.
