Former India captain Sourav Ganguly lauded ex-captain Virat Kohli after the batter broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries and scored his 50th ton in the format in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023.
Kohli achieved this massive feat in the first semi-final of CWC 2023 in Mumbai against New Zealand as his 117 helped India post 397/4 in 50 overs. Shreyas Iyer (105), Shubman Gill (80*) and Rohit Sharma (47) were the other contributors as well.
Despite Daryl Mitchell’s 134 and Kane Williamson’s 69, India managed to win the match by 70 runs, bowling out New Zealand for 327. For India, Mohammad Shami picked 7/57, the best bowling figures by an Indian in ODIs.
Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Ganguly was all praise for Kohli as the batting icon became the first player to register 50 centuries in the 50-over format.
“It will take a lot of beating to go past this and he's not finished yet. It's a phenomenal achievement,” Ganguly told PTI.
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“India are playing incredible cricket at the moment. Be it Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer or the bowlers. It's a complete side, there is tremendous talent in this team. But We need to take one step at a time," Ganguly added.
Kohli also shattered Tendulkar’s record for most runs in a single Cricket World Cup edition of 673 runs and became the first batter to go past the 700-run mark. Kohli now has 711 runs in 10 matches with 3 centuries and 5 fifties to his name at an average of 101.57 and strike-rate of 90.68.
Ganguly also praised Kohli for his achievement on Instagram with a message that read: “What an achievement from a absolute master of the art .. 50 one day hundreds is just a stellar effort over such a long period of time .. heartiest congratulations to Virat Kohli”
