On Tuesday, the No. 3 batsman for India Virat Kohli played against Sri Lanka and reached his 45th one-day international hundred. He did so by reaching the record off of only 80 balls. After not scoring a century in one-day internationals for three years, Kohli finally did it against Bangladesh a month ago, and then he did it again in Guwahati to make it two in a straight.
On Asked about his performance he said,
“I have had a bit of break, and a couple of practice sessions coming into this game, so I was fresh after that Bangladesh tour. I was excited for the home season to start. The openers allowed me to get into the game and I tried to keep my strike rate in check. I was happy I was able to maintain the tempo and we finished with 370. I would take those (dropped chances) any day. Luck plays a big part, you need to thank god on such evenings. These evenings are important, pretty aware of that. Thankful that I made the most of that luck presented to me. I helped the team get 20 runs extra, rather than 350. It’s going to be the same thing. Someone will have to score a 150, or 140 to chase this down. But it also gives our bowlers a chance to bowl with dew coming into play. I am quite aware of what I eat, diet is the most important thing at this age. That keeps me in prime shape. That helps me give my 100 percent for the team.”
During India’s tour to Bangladesh, Kohli finally broke his century drought in one-day international matches. After 1214 days, the third hitter in the lineup did not reach the century mark. When the former India captain had achieved his most recent one-day international century, he had passed the batting icon Ricky Ponting.
When Kohli takes his place at the batting crease for the match against Sri Lanka, he will be looking to set yet another record. Kohli now has 12,471 runs scored in ODIs and needs an additional 180 runs to break into the top 5 of all-time run scorers in ODIs. Kohli is just behind Tendulkar, Sangakkara, Ponting, Jayasuriya, and Jayawardene on the elite list.
