Virat Kohli equalled Sachin Tendulkar as he hit his 49th ODI century against South Africa in the ICC World Cup 2023 match at the Eden Gardens Stadium on Saturday, November 05. He scored the century in 119 balls to reach the milestone. While Sachin achieved it in 452 innings, Kohli did in only 277 innings. Kohli became only the third batter after New Zealand’s Ross Taylor and Australia’s Mitchell Marsh to get a World Cup century on birthday. It was on this very ground of Eden Gardens that Kohli hit his first century ever.
In the last match against Sri Lanka, Kohli also reached the milestone of 1000 runs in a calendar year. With that he had over taken Sachin for yet another record as this was the eighth time that Kohli had reached 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year. Sachin had scored 1000 runs in a calendar year only 7 times in his career.
Kohli has so far hit 79 centuries in international cricket which includes 28 in Tests and one in T20Is along with 49 in ODIs. In the World Cups, this is Kohli’s fourth century and he is now the third most century-getter for India behind Sachin Tendulkar’s six and Rohit Sharma’s seven centuries. This is his second century in this World Cup. He smashed his first century since 2015 against Bangladesh in Pune
Kohli, who started his career in 2008 and was part of the World Cup-winning team in 2011, waited nearly three years to get to his 70th century as he was unable to score a century from August 2019 to September 2022 before he smashed his first T20I century against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup 2022.
Virat Kohli is the fastest to reach 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 thousand ODI runs in history. A chase master, Kohli also has 27 centuries in successful chases and is one of the three Indians to get two ODI centuries before turning 22.