Virat Kohli pulled off the unthinkable during the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand by eclipsing Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time record of 49 ODI tons. Kohli also surpassed Tendulkar’s tally of most runs in a single edition of the World Cup. But can he beat the legend’s total of 100 tons?
With 711 runs under his belt, Kohli is the highest scorer of this World Cup. The 35-year-old is now 20 centuries behind Tendulkar’s all-time tally of 100 tons in international cricket.
Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri recently talked about the never-ending comparison between Kohli and Tendulkar. Shastri, who has seen Kohli closely during his stint as India’s head coach, made a bold prediction about the batter.
He believes it would be silly to dismiss Kohli’s chances of equalling Tendulkar’s record of 100 tons.
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“Who would have thought when Sachin Tendulkar got 100 hundreds that anyone would come close and he’s got 80, 80 international hundreds, 50 of them in the one-day game and which makes him the highest. Unreal. Nothing’s impossible because such players, when they start reeling off hundreds, then they score them pretty quickly. His next 10 innings, you might see another five hundreds,” Shastri said on The ICC Review podcast.
“You have three formats of the game and he’s part of all those formats. To think that he still has three or four years of cricket ahead of him is simply mind-boggling,” the ex-India cricketer added.
Kohli had matched Tendulkar’s ODI tally of 49 centuries during a league-stage fixture against South Africa. Powered by the incredible century, India had posted 326 runs in that game against the Proteas. Hosts India clinched a resounding 243-run victory in that match.
Kohli got an opportunity to go past Tendulkar’s ODI record during India’s final league-stage contest against the Netherlands. But he was dismissed for 51 in that match against the Dutch cricket team.
The moment finally came in the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Kohli scored his 50th ODI century against the Kiwis in front of a jam-packed Mumbai crowd with his idol Tendulkar present in the stands.
India defeated New Zealand by 70 runs. They will now face five-time champions Australia in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad on November 19.