3 milestones Virat Kohli can achieve in 3rd India vs South Africa ODI

Virat Kohli's first series as a non-captain hasn't gone well. He did score a fine 63-ball 51 in the first ODI, but got out against the run of play. In the second match, he lacked his usual control and chipped his fifth ball to cover for a dolly catch to get out for a duck. More importantly, India lost both games and thus the series 2-0.

For two years Kohli has been in and out of form. He's played some masterful knocks in crunch situations that defy all the stat-talk. On other occasions, he has looked almost short on confidence, getting out in peculiar ways in unusual situations.

Still, there's hope that relinquishing/losing captaincy in all formats (and in the IPL), failing to win his final Test frontier, losing the series to a transitioning team with a match still to go, and getting out for a five-ball duck could be Kohli's rock bottom.

And if it indeed is, the final, dead-rubber ODI might even herald his bounceback and eventually the "second peak" of his career. Following are three milestones Kohli can breach on Friday to regain his upwards career trajectory:

#1 Joint-second-most hundreds in international cricket

If he gets his elusive 71st international century on Friday, Virat Kohli will join Australian great Ricky Ponting as the joint-second in the list of most tons in international cricket. Sachin Tendulkar is obviously at the top with 100 centuries in 664 matches.

Ponting reached his 71st in 560 matches and, incredibly, Kohli has still played 110 matches less than him. The former Indian captain is likely to eventually reach there, but his team and fans will hope it happens sooner rather than later.

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#2 Virat Kohli can have the joint-most ODI hundreds against South Africa

Virat Kohli has scored 1338 runs from 29 ODIs against South Africa, including four hundreds. His 71st international century will also bring the 33-year-old in parity with Tendulkar in terms of most hundreds against the Proteas.

Tendulkar has five from 57 matches and Kohli and David Warner are the only two with four.

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#3 Virat Kohli is just 72 runs short of 1000 runs in South Africa

Even if Virat Kohli is unable to get to the three-figure mark, he can still break a huge record in Cape Town. He's just 72 runs shy of completing 1000 ODI runs in South Africa. Only Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have done that in their careers.

Although Tedulkar will remain India's top-scorer in the Rainbow Nation with 1453 runs (from 40 ODIs), Kohli needs just three runs to pass Rahul Dravid's tally of 930 and 120 runs to pass Ganguly's 1048, and that too in just his 20th match in South Africa.