Mumbai, Nov 15: Virat Kohli on Wednesday climbed a peak that no one ever has conquered – 50th hundred in ODIs, and, rest assured, the Indian superstar will stand alone on that high point for foreseeable future.
With that century against New Zealand in the World Cup semifinals here, Kohli moved past his idol Sachin Tendulkar, who had held the record for most ODI centuries till now with 49 of them.
Tendulkar also might have felt a bit of gratification seeing his successor dethroning him, as the batting maestro himself had asked Kohli not to delay in getting to the mark.
After Kohli reached his 49th ODI hundred against South Africa in Kolkata, Tendulkar took to X (formerly Twitter) to wish the Delhiite.
“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,” Tendulkar had written then.
Kohli did precisely that on this day in Tendulkar’s home ground.
Here is a stat-crunch from India’s innings.
50: Kohli is now the only batsman to have 50 hundreds in ODI cricket. Among the active cricketers, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma tails him at 31.
5: This was Kohli’s 5th hundred in World Cup, going equal with Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting. Rohit leads the list with seven centuries.
3: This the first time 3 players from same team score more than 500 runs in World Cup: Kohli, Shreyas, Rohit.
711: Kohli is now the highest run-getter in this World Cup. He is the only batsman to score more than 700 runs in the showpiece. The previous best was Tendulkar’s 673 in 2003 World Cup.
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