5 unnoticed achievements of Virat Kohli from the 2nd ODI

Indian skipper Virat Kohli is in the form of his life with the willow, scoring runs game after game. With every game, he is scaling new heights and achieving new milestones. We all know the fact that he reached the 10,000 runs mark in the 2nd ODI and he created the record for being the fastest in terms of innings. Kohli surpassed Sachin Tendulkar in being the fastest to reach 10,000 ODI runs beating Sachin’s record of 259 innings, Virat achieved the feat in just 205 innings.

His knock of 157* in the 2nd ODI helped India reach a score of 321/6 in the allotted 50 overs. In reply, West Indies managed to secure a tie after the last ball boundary by Shai Hope of the bowling of Umesh Yadav towards the point boundary.

With the game ending in a tie, it was a bitter day for Virat Kohli as he managed to notch up quite a few records but couldn’t the end game on a winning note. However, India still leads the 5 match ODI series 1-0 with 3 games to go.

In a game that had many achievements by the Indian Skipper, let us look at 5 unnoticed achievements.

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# 1 8000 International runs as skipper

Virat Kohli took up the mantle as Indian skipper from M.S Dhoni couple of years ago and there were heavy expectations on him. We have witnessed few greats in the past suffer due to the captaincy pressure. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and M.S Dhoni had a dip in their batting form after taking up the role of captaincy.

However, Virat Kohli’s story has been different and this is why he is termed as a modern-day legend. Ever since Virat Kohli took up the mantle, his batting has improved and his run-scoring ability has increased.

With his knock of 157*, Virat Kohli achieved 8000 International runs as skipper and this includes Test Cricket, ODI cricket and T20 Internationals.

#2 5 plus ODI 100s most times in a calendar year

Virat Kohli notched up his 37th ODI century in the 2nd ODI at Visakhapatnam and in the process of doing so, he got into the record books for being the player to achieve 5 or plus ODI Centuries for most times in a calendar year.

He surpassed Sachin Tendulkar who held the record for achieving 5 or plus centuries in 2 years. Kohli has achieved 5 or plus centuries in ODIs for 3 years now. In the past, he has done it in the year of 2012, where he scored 1026 runs in 17 innings with 5 centuries at an average of 68.40.

He bettered the record in the year of 2017 by scoring a mammoth 1460 runs in 26 games at a brilliant average of 76.84 with 6 centuries under the belt.

In this year, Virat Kohli notched up 1046 runs in 11 innings at an impeccable average of 149.43 and with 5 centuries.

However, the record for scoring most centuries in a calendar year still looks far away with Sachin sitting on top of the throne with 9 centuries achieved in the year of 1998. However, with the current form and still few ODIs left against West Indies and Australia later this year, it would be interesting to see if Virat Kohli surpasses the record set by the Master Blaster.

#3 Fastest to 4000 ODI runs at Home & most Man of the Matches by an Indian Captain

Virat Kohli scored 2 back to back centuries in the first 2 ODIs and for his efforts, he was awarded the Man of the Match awards. With this, he entered into the record books again for being awarded the most number of Man of the Match awards for any Indian Captain.

Virat Kohli surpassed M.S Dhoni who held the record for 17 games in international cricket across all formats. However, Virat Kohli surpassed this record with 18 Man of the Matches awards across all the formats.

Another record that went unnoticed in the 2nd ODI was that Virat Kohli became the fastest player to score 4000 ODI runs at home. He achieved this feat in the 2nd ODI at Visakhapatnam. He achieved the feat in just 78 innings at an average of 61.60. His average at both home and away are quite identical although he has featured in more away games than at home

#4 Second batsman to score two 150’s as the Captain in ODI’s

Virat Kohli’s 157* made him the second batsman and captain to score 2 150+ scores in ODI Cricket besides ex-England captain Andrew Strauss. Andrew Strauss, the left-handed England opener, who captained England in ODI cricket has scored 2 150+ scores as a batsman and a captain previous in One-Day cricket.

Andrew Strauss first achieved the feat of 150+ score against Bangladesh in the year of 2011 at Trent Bridge, which England went on to win by 144 runs. Strauss again repeated the feat against India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, where he scored a crafty 158. It wasn’t a match-winning knock as the game ended in a tie.

Similarly, Virat Kohli scored his 150 as a captain against South Africa at Cape Town earlier this year. His knock of 160* helped India win the game against the Proteas by 124 runs.

His second 150 was against West Indies in the recently concluded 2nd ODI and this registered him to share the honours aside Andrew Strauss.

Surprisingly both the second 150 scores achieved by both Strauss and Kohli have ended up as a tie, which is a coincidence of sorts.

#5 Most ODI 100’s in 2 Consecutive Years and Most ODI 100’s vs West Indies

Virat Kohli achieved a rare feat of being the joint record holder for scoring the most number of International centuries in 2 consecutive years. With his 37th ODI hundred, Virat Kohli reached 20 International Centuries in both 2017/18 combined.

He is now the joint record holder with Sachin Tendulkar who scored 20 International Centuries in the years of 1998/99.

However, this record of 20 centuries held by Sachin is under threat considering the fact that Virat Kohli has 3 more ODI’s against the West Indies and few games against Australia later this year.

One more unnoticed achievement that has gone by is that Virat Kohli now has the most ODI Centuries than any other player against West Indies. Previously the record was held by AB de Villiers, who had a joint record of 5 ODI Centuries with Hashim Amla and Herschelle Gibbs.

Below are the 6 ODI Centuries of Virat Kohli against the West Indies:

1. 117 in 2011 at Vizag
2. 102 in 2013 at Trinidad
3. 127 in 2014 at Dharamshala
4. 111* in 2017 at Jamaica
5. 140 in 2018 at Guwahati
6. 157* in 2018 at Vizag

Incidentally, India won 5 games out of 6, with 1 game ending as a Tie.