New Delhi: India captain Virat Kohli tumbled down a plethora of previous records as he notched up his 29th ODI century in the fourth one-day international match in the ongoing ODI series against Sri Lanka, at Premadasa Stadium, today. En route to his 96-ball 131, Virat also amassed 2000 ODI runs against the hosts, becoming the youngest ever to achieve the feat against an opposition in the 50-over format. ( SL vs IND, 4th ODI: LIVE BLOG )
Kohli stepped in after Shikhar Dhawan's early dismissal and then combined with Rohit Sharma to weave a phenomenal 219-run stand. He rampaged through 17 boundaries and two sixes to hit his 29th ODI century, thus surpassing Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya as the third player on the list of batsman with most ODI centuries. He is one behind Ricky Ponting now.
En route to his 96-ball 131, Virat Kohli also amassed 2000 ODI runs against Lanka, thus becoming the youngest ever (28 years and 299 days) to achieve the mark against any opposition in this format of the game. He is, however, the fifth batsman to record such a feat, after – Sachin Tendulkar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, MS Dhoni and Saeed Anwar.
Reaching the mark in just 44 innings, he also leapfrogged fellow teammate Dhoni to become the batsman to take fewest ODI innings to score 2000 runs against Lanka. Dhoni stands second (45), followed by Pakistani legend Anwar (47).
However, accounting all opponents, the 28-year-old stands second alongside West Indies great Viv Richards, who had achieved the 2000-run mark in 44 innings against Australia. Leading the list is still the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, who had breached the milestone in 40 innings against Australia.
Kohli now has 2076 runs against Sri Lanka, standing fifth behind Tendulkar (3113), Dhoni (2310), Inzamam-ul-Haq (2265) and Anwar (2197).
