India’s star batter Virat Kohli on Wednesday (November 15) notched up a record-breaking 50th ODI century, going past legendary Sachin Tendulkar's record during the marquee World Cup 2023 semi-final clash against New Zealand in Mumbai.
Batting at No. 3, Kohli slammed 117 off 113 balls (9 fours and 2 sixes), helping the hosts post a gigantic total of 397/4 on the board.
Kohli reached this milestone in the 42nd over off the bowling of Lockie Ferguson. This was his first-ever ton in the knockout stage of the Cricket World Cup, which also took him past Tendulkar's landmark for the most runs in a single World Cup edition.
Speaking to broadcasters in the innings break, Virat Kohli described the moment as "the perfect picture" for having accomplished the feat in a World Cup semi-final in front of his life partner Anushka Sharma and his childhood hero Sachin Tendulkar.
"It's stuff of dreams, Anushka was sitting right there, Sachin paaji was there in the stands. I mean, it's very difficult for me to explain this, but if I could paint the perfect picture, I would want this to be the picture. My life partner, the person I love the most, she's sitting there. My hero, he's sitting there. And I was able to get the 50th in front of all of them and all these fans at Wankhede as well, such a historic venue. It was amazing," Kohli said.
Tendulkar took 452 innings to hit 49 ODI tons while Virat reached the landmark in just 277 innings earlier in the tournament against South Africa. He has now set the world record in 279 innings.
In the mid-innings, Tendulkar hugged Kohli and congratulated him for creating history.
"I said it in Kolkata, the great man (Sachin Tendulkar) just congratulated me, all this feels like a dream for me, honestly," Kohli said. "It's too good to be true, feels surreal, I never thought I'll be here ever in my career. Just to help the team so many times, again, a big game today, I had to kind of play the role I've played throughout the tournament so that the guys around me can go and express themselves. Just glad that everything came together so nicely and we put up a great total on the board as well."
During his knock, Kohli put on 93 off 86 balls with Shubman Gill and 163 off 128 balls with Shreyas Iyer. While Iyer slammed 105 off 70 balls, Gill returned with 80* off 66 balls after going out of the field due to cramps.
"As I've said a lot of times before, the most important thing is to make my team win, and whatever it takes to do that, I'm ready to do that, whether it's running singles and doubles, hitting boundaries, whatever the team wants me to do," Kohli said. "I've been given a role this tournament, and I'm trying to play that to the best of my ability, trying to dig deep, bat long, so that the others can play around me and have that confidence that I'm going into the later overs where I can dominate with the bat as well. That's the only key to consistency I guess, just playing according to the situation, playing for your team at all times."
