Virat Kohli broke two significant records held by Sachin Tendulkar during the World Cup semi-final against New Zealand in Mumbai.
He became the first batter to score 50 ODI centuries – surpassing Tendulkar’s 49 – and also broke Tendulkar’s record for most runs in a single ODI World Cup. Tendulkar had scored 673 runs in the 2003 edition; Kohli went past that tally when he scored his 80th run in Wednesday’s semi-final.
While Tendulkar had scored his 49th hundred in his 451st ODI innings, Kohli equaled that landmark in just 277 innings – against South Africa in India’s penultimate league game of this World Cup – and then broke the record in his 279th innings. Kohli got to his 50th ODI century with a flick for two off Lockie Ferguson in 42nd over of India’s innings.
As he completed his second run, Kohli celebrated with a leap and a punch in the air, before taking off his helmet, raising his arms and bowing towards the stands where Tendulkar stood applauding the achievement.
The hundred was Kohli’s third of this World Cup to go with five half-centuries in ten innings; he averages more than hundred with a strike rate of just under 90 in the tournament. He came into bat in the ninth over of India’s innings, with the score on 71 for 1, and had a 93-run stand with Shubman Gill and a century partnership with Shreyas Iyer. Kohli brought up his half-century off 59 balls and then scored his next 50 runs off 53 deliveries, after seeming to suffer cramps while in his 90s.