India batter and one of the all-time ODI greats Virat Kohli recorded his 46th century in the format in the third and final match of the three-ODI series against Sri Lanka on January 15, 2023.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat first and he himself started well, scoring 42 runs. India then saw a 131-run partnership for the second wicket between Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli. Shubman Gill continued his glorious form with the bat and scored his second ODI century, finishing with 116 with 14 fours and 2 sixes to his name.
However, Virat Kohli continued to celebrate his return to form as he smashed his second century in the series and third in his last four ODIs, reaching the milestone in 85 balls.
This was his 46th ODI ton, just 4 away from breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI tons and becoming the first batter to reach the 50-ODI tons milestone.
With the ton, Kohli broke his own record and went past Sachin as well in the list of most tons against a single opponent. The former India captain now is the only ever batter to score 10 centuries against an ODI team, Sri Lanka. He also has nine tons against West Indies while Sachin has a similar tally against Australia.
He also broke Sachin's record for most centuries at home. This was Kohli's 21st such knock in 101 innings in India. He had leveled Sachin’s record of 20 ODI centuries at home in this list with his knock of 113 runs in the series opener earlier this week.
En route to his century, Kohli pipped Kallis (5186 runs) to become the third-highest run-getter at home in the format. Only Sachin (6976) and Ponting (5521) have more runs than Kohli at home.
However, one of the most highlighting milestones Kohli achieved during his superlative knock was that he entered the top five of the all-time highest run-getters in the ODI format.
On reaching the 64-run mark in his knock, Kohli surpassed Sri Lanka legend Mahela Jayawardene, who amassed 12650 runs in his illustrious career in 50-over cricket. Above him are Sachin Tendulkar (18426), Kumar Sangakkara (14234), Ponting (13704) and Sanath Jayasuriya (13430).
