India vs Australia 2019: 3 Records Virat Kohli broke during his absorbing century in second ODI

The T20 series between India and Australia ended in favour of the Aussies. Indians, on the other hand, wanted to make a comeback in the ODIs. They did so by winning the first ODI at Hyderabad comprehensively when everyone potentially thought that the game was over when India had lost 4 wickets with just 99 runs on the board.

It was the effort of the middle order that won India the game on Saturday. Fast forward to the 2nd ODI at Nagpur, India were put to bat after Virat Kohli lost the toss. Kohli came in at the end of the first over as Rohit Sharma departed without scoring a run.

From the onset, Kohli knew that the pitch was on the slower side and batting wouldn’t be easy. He rotated the strike and scored occasional boundaries to take off pressure. At the other end, only Vijay Shankar contributed with a significant 46 runs off 41 balls.

Kohli stuck to his plans and got to his 40th ODI century, just nine short of the great man Sachin Tendulkar. Here are some of the records he broke in today’s match:

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#3 Only cricketer to score 7 or more centuries against three different opponents:

Virat Kohli now has seven ODI centuries vs Australia

Virat Kohli is the undisputed king in the limited overs without a question. The way he constructs his innings tells a lot about his technique and game plan. He has taken on every bowling attack and has dominated each of them. The team’s success is heavily dependent on his performance.

Kohli got to his ODI century number 40 in the second ODI against Australia. It was his seventh ODI century against the Aussies. Only Sachin Tendulkar has scored has more centuries (9) against them while Rohit Sharma has the same number of tons as Kohli.

The standout feature is that Kohli has scored seven or more centuries against three different teams. He has eight tons against Sri Lanka, seven tons against the kangaroos and seven versus the West Indies. He is the only player in the history of the game to do so.

Sachin Tendulkar has 7 or more ODI centuries against two teams: nine versus Australia and eight versus Sri Lanka.

#2 Youngest to 40 ODI centuries:

Virat Kohli, the youngest to score 40 ODI centuries

Right from his initial days in international cricket, Kohli has been very consistent. This is justified by his numbers in the ODIs. He has amassed over 10,500 runs at an astonishing average of 59.74 in 224 matches. This includes 40 tons and 49 half centuries. Besides that, his strike rate of 92.65 is quite impressive.

The rate at which Kohli converts his fifties into hundreds in ODIs is quite rare in limited overs cricket. He converts 41% of his fifties into a hundred which again justifies his longevity in the game.

On the other hand, Sachin Tendulkar had scored 8350 runs with 23 hundreds and 44 fifties in 224 matches. Kohli is miles ahead of the little master when these statistics are taken into account.

Tendulkar was 33 years and 142 days old when he got to his 40th ton. Kohli surpassed this record by scoring his 40th ton when he is 30 years and 121 days old, thereby becoming the youngest player to do so.

#1 Fastest to 9000 runs in international cricket as Captain:

Virat Kohli now has 9000 runs as captain in International cricket

Virat Kohli broke former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting’s record to become the fastest player to get to 9000 runs at the international level as captain. Kohli took just 159 innings to reach the milestone while Ponting took 204 innings to do the same.

Kohli got to this milestone when he played the ball to long-on to take a single against Adam Zampa in the 14th over of the match. He also became the sixth captain to accumulate more than 9000 runs in the international arena.

Graeme Smith (220 innings), MS Dhoni (253 innings), Allan Border (257 innings), Stephen Fleming (272 innings) are the other captains in this elite list. This is a huge milestone because no captain has ever been close to what Kohli has achieved. In fact, they were at least 2000 runs behind in their 159th innings as captain.

Lara comes close with 7000 runs in 164 innings. With this, Kohli is the fastest to reach 4000,5000,6000,7000,8000 and 9000 runs as captain.