Virat Kohli displayed a batting masterclass in the fourth match of the ongoing five-match One Day International (ODI) series between Sri Lanka and India. Kohli, who missed out in the second and third match the series, played a brilliant knock and scored one of the most good looking hundreds of his career.
Virat Kohli came in to bat at number after the fall of Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket and started attacking right from the word go. He looked in great touch and middled almost everything. He played strokes all around the park and made Lankan bowlers look very ordinary.
He didn’t allow them to settle by scoring boundaries at regular intervals. There was no dull phase till the time Kohli was there as he was partnered brilliantly by Rohit Sharma, who scored second consecutive hundred in the series.
Virat Kohli’s century today is also his seventh ton against Sri Lanka.
Kohli has been in terrific form in 2016, across all three formats of the game. He had struck three hundreds last year and has scored three more already in 2017 in ODIs.
With this hundred, Virat Kohli is now third on the list of most ODI hundreds, only behind his idol Sachin Tendulkar (49) and Australian legend Ricky Ponting (30). It is noteworthy that while Ponting reached the figure in 375 matches, Virat Kohli (193 matches) has taken 182 games less to achieve the same feat.
Virat Kohli slammed his 29th ODI hundred, overtaking Sri Lanka’s legendary batsman Sanath Jayasuriya. Before this innings, Kohli was the joint third on the list with Jayasuriya.
Most hundreds in ODI cricket
1) Sachin Tendulkar- 49
2) Ricky Ponting- 30
3) Virat Kohli – 29
4) Sanath Jayasuriya- 28
During the innings, Virat Kohli also overtook South Africa captain Faf du Plessis as the leading run-scorer in ODIs this year. India is scheduled to play a lot of ODI cricket in the next few months and Kohli will have a good chance to better this lead and end the year as the leading run-scorer of 2017 in One Day International (ODI) cricket.
