Former Indian captain Virat Kohli has added another episode to his gloriously record-breaking ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 campaign. On his way to become the first cricketer to register 50th ODI century in the ongoing first semi-final against New Zealand in Mumbai, Kohli also managed to score most runs in one ODI World Cup.
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Co-incidentally, Kohli left Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar behind to achieve both the aforementioned records 10 days after equaling him in two different records. While Tendulkar had scored most runs in a World Cup a couple of decades ago, he had scored a 49th ODI century, his 100th in international cricket, a decade ago.
Kohli, who has a knack of excelling in high-pressure global tournaments, can be proud of becoming the only player to score the maximum number of runs in a season of both the white-ball World Cups.
For the unversed, no one has ever scored more runs in a T20 World Cup than Kohli’s 319 at an average and strike rate of 106.33 and 129.14 respectively across six innings nine years ago. As far as the ongoing tournament is concerned, Kohli is the highest run-scorer on the back of his 701 runs coming at an average of 116.83 and a strike rate of 89.87 across 10 innings.
First batter to surpass the 700-run mark in a World Cup, Kohli has outperformed Tendulkar by 28 runs with possibly one more innings to be played. Readers must note that Tendulkar had scored 673 runs in 11 innings at 61.18 during ICC Cricket World Cup 2003.
As far as the Indian Premier League, the biggest T20 league in the world, is concerned, the right-handed batter had put on display an unprecedented performance in the ninth season seven years ago. Kohli, who used to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore at the time, had scored as many as 973 runs in 16 innings at an average and strike rate of 81.08 and 152.03 respectively.
One of the three Indian batters who missed out on scoring a century at the Wankhede Stadium earlier this month, Kohli has also become the first Indian batter to have scored an ODI World Cup hundred at this iconic venue.
Virat Kohli Registers Highest Individual Score In World Cup Semi-Final
Kohli, who turned 35 earlier this month, has also achieved the highest individual score by a batter in an ODI World Cup semi-final. Only the sixth batter to score a ton in a World Cup semi-final, Kohli was able to score more runs than the likes of Mahela Jayawardene (115*), Graham Gooch (115), Saeed Anwar (113*), Sourav Ganguly (111*) and Steven Smith (105).
Dismissed in the 44th over, Kohli returned back to the pavilion amid a standing ovation from a jam-packed stadium after amassing 117 (113) with the help of nine fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 103.53. It is noteworthy that Kohli had scored a combined total of 11 runs in his previous three World Cup semi-finals.
In what was his 43rd ODI ton at No. 3, it was also his 35th in Asia, 24th at home, sixth against New Zealand, in 2023 and under Rohit Sharma (47).
