Virat Kohli scores 49th ODI hundred on his birthday
Star India batter Virat Kohli scripted history during Match 37 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 against South Africa as he registered the 49th ODI hundred of his career on Sunday, November 05. The 35-year-old made his birthday even more special by levelling the record of his idol Sachin Tendulkar.
With his innings, the Delhi-born batter reached the 49th hundred mark in just 277 innings. Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar completed the milestone in 452 innings on 16 March, 2012 at Shere-e-bangla National Stadium, Mirpur against Bangladesh.
With his century, Kohli also became the seventh player to score a hundred in ODIs on his birthday and joined Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Sanath Jayasuriya, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham and Mitchell Marsh in the list. Notably, only Ross Taylor had scored a century earlier on his birthday in the ODI World Cup during the 2011 edition against Pakistan.
The former India captain remained unbeaten on 101* (121) smashing ten fours in his innings. During his innings, he also became the second-highest run scorer of the tournament so far with 543 runs to his name from eight innings at an average of 108.60 with two hundreds and four fifties to his name.
Kohli became the third highest run scorer in ODI World Cup history
Kohli also rose on the list of the leading run scorers in ODI World Cup history as he now sits on the third spot with 1573 runs to his name only behind Ricky Ponting (1743 runs) and Sachin Tendulkar (2278 runs).
Coming back to the match, thanks to Kohli’s century India posted 326/5 in their allotted 50 overs after opting to bat first. The Men in Blue got off to a terrific start as their captain Rohit Sharma (40 off 24) took on South African bowling in the powerplay. Following his dismissal, Shreyas Iyer (77 off 87) and Kohli got involved in a massive 134-run stand for the third wicket.
Suryakumar Yadav (22 off 14) and Ravindra Jadeja (29* off 15) also gave the finishing touch to the innings to propel India’s total past 320.
