After smashing his 45th one-day international century during India’s first one-day international match against Sri Lanka in Guwahati on Tuesday, star batter Virat Kohli has been the talk of the town. The 34-year-old hitter hit 113 runs off just 87 balls to help Team India to a comfortable victory against the visitors, which allowed them to grab a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. With this hundred, Virat also tied Sachin Tendulkar record of scoring the most “home hundreds” in one-day internationals (ODIs), which he had previously held. In addition to this, he is only four centuries away from matching Tendulkar’s record for the most centuries scored in the format (49).
When asked who is a better player between Sachin Tendulkar and Kohli, former BBCI president Sourav Ganguly was reported by PTI as saying, “It’s a toss-up between the two of them.” “It is not easy to provide an answer to that question.
Kohli is an outstanding athlete and player. He has played many innings like this, 45 hundreds are not something that just happens like this. He possesses a remarkable gift. Although there will be stretches in the game in which he does not score, he is a very remarkable player.”
On Tuesday, Kohli notched his 73rd century overall in international cricket, which included his 45th one-day international (ODI) century.
The hitter needs only four more hits of this kind to catch up to Sachin Tendulkar record of 49 tonnes scored in one-day international competition.
In the first one-day international (ODI), India defeated Sri Lanka by 67 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the three-game series thanks to a century scored by Virat Kohli. The enormous score of 373 for 7 that India reached was made possible by Kohli’s knock.
The team’s captain, Rohit Sharma, scored 83 runs off 67 balls, and Shubman Gill scored 70 runs off 60 balls. India limited Sri Lanka to 306 for 8 in their allotted 50 overs thanks to the combined efforts of Umran Malik (3/57) and Mohammed Siraj (2/30), who took five wickets between them.
Pathum Nissanka provided 72 runs while Captain Dasun Shanaka scored 108 runs without being out to lead Sri Lanka in scoring.