In the 17th match of the ongoing ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 at Pune’s MCA Stadium on Thursday, October 19, Virat Kohli, the Indian batsman, played a brilliant inning of 103 not out. Kohli came to bat in the 13th over after the Indian openers, Rohit Sharma (48) and Shubman Gill (53), provided a strong start with an 88-run partnership for the first wicket. At that point, India still needed 169 more runs to win.
Similar to his performance against Australia, Kohli orchestrated an impressive run chase and led his team to victory. He had an excellent start, capitalizing on two free-hits from Hasan Mahmud, hitting them for a four and a six. Once settled, Kohli consistently found gaps and ran aggressively between the wickets, a trademark of his high-quality innings. Kohli reached 74 runs when India required 26 runs with 11.4 overs left.
He then focused on twos and boundaries to achieve his century, which he accomplished by smashing Nasum Ahmed for a six-over deep mid-wicket. India won the match with 51 balls to spare. Kohli achieved multiple milestones during his unbeaten 103-run innings.
Here are the top five Milestones
1. Fastest Batter To Score 26,000 Runs
Virat Kohli reached the milestone of 26,000 international runs in the most recent ODI World Cup match against Bangladesh, just a few months after hitting his 25,000th international run during the Border-Gavaskar Test series against Australia.
In achieving this, he established a new record as the quickest player to reach 26,000 international runs, needing 567 international innings to accomplish this feat, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar, who took 600 innings to reach the same remarkable milestone.
2. The inaugural Indian to amass 1,000 ODI World Cup runs while batting at the No. 3 position
Virat Kohli has firmly held the No. 3 batting position for years, excelling in limited-overs formats. He achieved a notable milestone on Thursday, becoming the first Indian to accumulate 1,000 runs in ODI World Cup matches while batting at No. 3.
It’s worth noting that during the 2011 ODI World Cup, he mostly batted at No. 4. Now, he has scored 1,066 runs at an impressive average of 62.70 at No. 3 in the World Cup, with only Ricky Ponting (1723) and Kumar Sangakkara (1174) scoring more runs in this position in ODI World Cups.
3. Highest run-scorer in ICC men’s white-ball tournaments
Virat Kohli achieved another remarkable milestone on Thursday by becoming the all-time leading run-scorer in ICC white-ball matches. These matches encompass the ICC men’s T20 World Cup, the ICC men’s ODI World Cup, and the ICC men’s Champions Trophy.
Renowned for his exceptional performances in high-pressure situations, Kohli has amassed a total of 2,959 runs at a remarkable average of 67.25 in 67 limited-over ICC tournament matches. He surpassed Chris Gayle’s previous record of 2,942 runs in 82 innings. Among Kohli’s 2,959 runs in white-ball ICC matches, he scored 1,289 in ODI World Cups, 529 in Champions Trophy, and 1,141 in T20 World Cup matches.
4. Tied for the most Player of the Match awards in ICC white-ball matches
Virat Kohli received the Player of the Match (P.O.T.M) award for his outstanding batting performance, marking his 40th P.O.T.M award in ODIs and 11th in ICC white-ball tournaments. This achievement ties him with West Indies’ Chris Gayle, who also has 11 Player of the Match awards in ICC tournament matches.
5. The fourth leading run-scorer in international cricket
On his way to scoring a century against Bangladesh, the 34-year-old cricketer became the fourth-leading run-scorer in international cricket. Kohli now has a total of 26,026 runs, surpassing Mahela Jayawardene (25,957) on the all-time list. Sachin Tendulkar (34,357), Kumar Sangakkara (28,016), and Ricky Ponting (27,483) are the only players who have scored more international runs than Kohli.
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