With his match-winning 165-run partnership with KL Rahul, India batting mainstay Virat Kohli guided the hosts home in their ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 opener against Australia in Chennai on Sunday. Virat walked in when India lost Ishan Kishan for a duck off the fourth ball of the innings and soon the score read a precarious 2/3, with skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer too falling for ducks. But in walked Rahul and joined forces with the chase-master Virat to dash Australian hopes with a splendid display of application and skill. (Match Report | Highlights | Full Coverage)
In the process, Virat notched up a few major milestones in ODI cricket - the format in which he is the most prolific. Virat fell short of a century by 15 runs, but his stellar knock was the 113th instance of Virat recording a 50-plus score in ODIs. With this, Virat overtook former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, who had 112 fifty-plus scores to his name in the 50-over format.
The knock also helped Virat eclipse his idol and former India great Sachin Tendulkar in the list of most runs scored for the country in ICC limited-overs tournaments. Virat now has a total of 2785 runs in ICC limited-overs tournaments, while Sachin had amassed 2719 runs in these tournaments. Sachin, however, took just 58 innings to get there, as against Virat's 64.
Earlier on Sunday, Virat had crossed another landmark in 50-over cricket as he became the Indian cricketer with most catches as a fielder in ODI World Cup history. Virat took a brilliant catch off India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah's bowling to get to 15 catches in the World Cup, surpassing legendary India leg-spinner Anil Kumble, who has 14 catches in the marquee 50-over tournament. Virat also took his adversary Adam Zampa's catch later in the day, whic took his tally to 16 catches.
