After waiting for more than a thousand days and 84 long international innings, Indian superstar batsman Virat Kohli scored the International century that the entire cricket world was waiting for.
Kohli’s breakthrough came against Afghanistan in the final match of the Asia Cup Super 4. Kohli was unbeaten in the match with 122 runs off 61 balls as he thrashed the Afghanistan bowlers. Kohli’s performance was reminiscent of his prime form. India, which was shamelessly left without a final seat in Asia Cup 2022, got greater happiness than the crown through the match against Afghanistan. Kohli, who faced criticism for struggling to score a century, has made a royal comeback against Afghanistan, and now he is the one who scored the first century against Afghanistan in the history of International Twenty20.
Pointing to his poor strike rate, many even suggested that Kohli should be dropped from the T20 World Cup squad. But at the end of 96 innings, Kohli silenced all the critics by scoring his maiden T20I century. After scoring a Test century against Bangladesh on 23 November 2019, this is the first time Kohli is getting a chance to greet the crowd by removing his Helmet.
Most importantly, this century broke Sachin Tendulkar’s and Ricky Ponting’s records. Kohli has now become the fastest player to score 71 International centuries in International cricket. Kohli reached this achievement from 522 innings. Ricky Ponting took 668 innings to reach this achievement. Sachin, who has 100 centuries in International cricket, reached this achievement from 782 innings.
Kohli also became the second batsman to cross the milestone of 3500 runs in T20 Internationals. Previously, Rohit Sharma had achieved this feat. Kohli also became the second player to hit more than 100 sixes for India. He has 104 sixes to his name.
Kohli also holds the record for the highest individual score in T20Is by an Indian. He broke Rohit Sharma’s record of 118 runs. This is also his highest T20 score. Kohli’s previous highest T20 score was 113 for RCB.
He also completed 24000 runs in International cricket and he will not have to wait much longer to surpass Rahul Dravid’s record.
India won by 101 runs against Afghanistan. Chasing the target of 213 runs set by India, Afghanistan scored 111 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Apart from Kohli, KL Rahul (62) shone in batting with a half-century. Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave a record bowling performance. He took five wickets conceding just 4 runs in four overs. Bhuvi also became the first bowler to take 2 five-wicket hauls for India in T20Is.
In any case, Kohli has now shown a performance that gives India great hope as it prepares for the T20 World Cup. Kohli’s return to form will be a great boost to his teammates as well as to the entire Indians.
Here is a list of all the significant accomplishments made by former Indian captain Virat Kohli after his unbroken innings of 122 off 61 balls.
- Virat Kohli surpassed Rohit Sharma’s 118 against Sri Lanka to record the greatest individual T20I score for an Indian.
- After Suresh Raina, Rohit, and KL Rahul. Kohli became the fourth Indian to achieve a century across all formats of cricket.
- Kohli joins Rohit, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Suryakumar Yadav, and Deepak Hooda as the sixth Indian to score a hundred in a Twenty20 match.
- In terms of the second-most International hundreds, Kohli and Ricky Ponting both had 71.
- With six T20 centuries, Kohli has the same number as KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma among Indian players.
- After Rohit, Kohli is the second Indian to score 100 sixes in a T20 match, making him the 10th hitter overall.
- The highest T20I score ever recorded in a UAE match is 122* by Kohli.
- After Rohit Sharma, Kohli became the second player to score 3,000 runs in T20Is.
