Former India captain Virat Kohli hammered his 47th ODI ton and achieved another brilliant record as the Men in Blue thumped Pakistan by 228 runs in their Asia Cup 2023 Super 4s encounter in Colombo.
Rohit Sharma (56) and Shubman Gill (58) had added 121 runs for the first wicket after India was put into bat by Babar Azam. But the match was halted due to rain with the score on 147/2 in 24.1 overs.
When the match resumed on the reserve day, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul hammered brutal centuries as India posted 356/2 in 50 overs.
Rahul made 111* and Kohli made 122* and the duo added 233 unbeaten runs for the 3rd wicket.
During his knock, Virat Kohli also went past the 13,000-run milestone and became the fastest to reach the mark in just 267 innings.
This led to India keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik comparing Virat Kohli with 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. Kohli became just the fifth batter and second Indian to score 13,000 runs in ODIs, and his 267 innings to the milestone were 54 innings faster than Sachin Tendulkar.
“To get it in 267 innings is unreal. It is very much comparable to what Novak Djokovic has done because when he started his career, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were flying. What this man has achieved in 267 innings comes close to some of the greats who have played the game, and we are adding up all the formats,” said Karthik on Cricbuzz.
Karthik added that Kohli might not break Tendulkar’s record for most runs in ODIs, since he’s played a lot more T20 matches but getting to 13,000 ODI runs faster than Tendulkar will be the greatness of Kohli.
“For him to come about and do that (get to 13,000 runs) in 267 innings, hats off to the man. You can say maybe he will fall short just because of the amount of cricket he is playing; he might not end up getting there. He has played far fewer innings than Sachin Tendulkar, and that will be the greatness of Virat Kohli,” Karthik added.
Chasing 357 runs, Pakistan was bundled over for just 128 runs in 32 overs, thanks to a five-wicket haul from Kuldeep Yadav.
