Star India batter Virat Kohli became the first player in the history of ODI cricket to score 50 centuries.
Virat reached the milestone during India’s ongoing World Cup semifinal against New Zealand at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
Carrying forward the blazing start given by the openers — skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill –, Virat brought up his 50th ODI ton of 106 balls with 8 four and 1 six. He later opened out before eventually falling for 117 off 113 balls. His knock was punctuated with nine fours and two sixes.
Virat scored his runs at a strike rate of over 103 before being eventually sent back by Tim Southee.
Now, Virat has a total of 50 ODI centuries in 291 ODIs. He has overtaken his childhood idol Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 49 ODI centuries in his decorated career.
Following his century, Virat bowed to Sachin, who was in the stands, enjoying the action. After a string of low scores in 2011, 2015 and 2019 WC knockout games, it was this historic knock that ended India’s wait for a Virat special in 50-over WC knockouts. Virat celebrated this historic moment with a jump, despite battling cramps.
This was also Virat’s 80th international cricket century. The star batter also has 29 Test centuries in 111 Tests and one T20I century in 115 matches. He is the second-highest century scorer of all time in international cricket and is chasing Sachin’s record of 100 international tons.
In 10 matches of this tournament so far, Virat has scored 711 runs at an average of over 101 and a strike rate of over 89. His best score is 117. Virat has scored three centuries and five fifties in 10 innings in this tournament. He is also the highest run-getter in the tournament so far. Virat also has the most amount of runs in a single Cricket World Cup edition, going past Sachin’s record of 673 runs in the 2003 edition of the tournament.
Virat is now the third-highest run-scorer in all of Cricket World Cup history. In 36 matches, he has scored 1,731 runs at an average of 61.46, with the best score of 117. He has scored five centuries in his WC career so far, with 11 fifties as well.
Earlier, on Wednesday, India won the toss and opted to bat first.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson(c), Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tom Latham(w), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult. (ANI)
