On Sunday, Virat Kohli became only the second batsman in the history of the game to notch up 49 ODI centuries, equalling the great Sachin Tendulkar’s tally. And while Tendulkar raised his 49th ODI century in his 451st ODI innings, Kohli reached there in only his 277th ODI innings.
At the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, celebrating his 35th birthday, against South Africa, Virat Kohli got to his 49th ODI hundred as India continued their winning juggernaut in the World Cup 2023.
This is the second century for the 35-year-old Kohli in the ongoing World Cup to go with his 4 half-centuries in total 8 innings.
Virat Kohli is now the second-highest run-scorer in the World Cup 2023 with 543 runs at a huge average of 108; he’s remained not out thrice.
His century, along with a half-century from Shreyas Iyer and quickfire knocks from Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Ravindra Jadeja propelled Team India’s score to 326, which was certainly above par on what Kohli described as a “tricky” pitch to bat on. If there was any hope remaining for South Africa to win this game, it diminished when the Indian bowlers took 6 wickets for only 59 runs.
A tweet by Virat Kohli from 2010 has gone viral
As the fans celebrated Virat Kohli’s 49th ODI ton, a tweet from the Delhi-born back from 2010 went viral. This was when Kohli was in his early 20s and was yet to cement his place in the Indian team. He had not even made his Test debut yet.
In March 2010, Virat Kohli had tweeted: “Looking forward to scoring lots of runs for my Team..”
This further highlights his mental strength to aim high and his determination to fulfill his dreams. Now Kohli stands as arguably the greatest ODI batsman of all time, and arguably the greatest all-format batsman of his generation.
On his century, Kohli said: “Every opportunity to play for India is big one for me. To be able to do that on my birthday, in front of the whole crowd, it’s stuff of dreams, something that as a child you wish had happened. I am very grateful to God that I have been blessed with these kinds of moments, so much love from the fans as well and just continue to help the team in any way possible.”
