Virat Kohli, on his 35th birthday, scored the 49th century of his ODI career on Sunday to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s tally for the most tons in the format. The Indian batting sensation achieved the milestone while batting against South Africa in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 encounter in Kolkata.
Virat Kohli pushed a single in the 49th over of the game bowled by Kagiso Rabada to reach the three-digit mark. His partner Ravindra Jadeja rushed to hug him as Eden Garden crowd erupted in delight.
Earlier in the match, Kohli had surpassed Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara to become the third-highest run-getter in ICC World Cups.
On Thursday, Virat Kohli was dismissed for 88 at Mumbai’s Wankhade Stadium by Sri Lanka. Earlier on October 22, he got out for 95 while chasing against New Zealand in Dharamsala. However, there was no stopping “King Kohli” at the City of Joy today.
The cricket fraternity took social media by storm with congratulatory posts for the star batter. Sachin himself took no time to congratulate his former teammate with an eye-catching post on his Twitter handle. Sachin lauded Virat for equalling one of the biggest records and tipped him to bring the 50th century in the next few days.
“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. Congratulations,” Sachin Tendulkar wrote in his Tweet.
Virat Kohli described his hundred on birthday as a dream come true and thanked God for blessing him with this moment. “Every opportunity to play for India is a big one, to be able to ton up on my birthday is a stuff of dreams,” Kohli said after scoring his century.
“Grateful to God that I’ve blessed with such moments. It’s a target well above par for me as the ball was gripping and it wasn’t easy to get hold of the bowlers. We have a quality attack. Wicket will get slower, pressure will mount, so hopefully we start well with the new ball.”
