CAB President Snehasish Ganguly presents Virat Kohli Gold-plated bat on latter's 35th birthday at Eden Gardens

The president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Snehasish Ganguly presented a gold-plated bat to India's batting maestro Virat Kohli on his 35th birthday. Virat's 35th birthday became special for him as he struck his 49th ODI century to equal Sachin Tendulkar's tally of scoring the most number of hundreds in ODIs.

Virat's century turned out to be a match-winning one as India won the game by a massive margin of 243 runs and South Africa endured their biggest loss in ODI history in terms of runs.

The gold-plated had "Happy Birthday Virat" mentioned on it. "You are a symbol of dedication and a living proof that age is just a number" was also inscribed on it.

The Cricket Association of Bengal took to its Facebook account and posted the images of Snehasish Ganguly presenting Kohli with the memento along with the caption, "CAB President Snehasish Ganguly today presented Virat Kohli with a gold plated bat that had "Happy Birthday Virat" mentioned on it. Below it was inscribed "You are a symbol of dedication and a living proof that age is just a number". Virat also cut a giant cake especially made with a Virat statue atop the dark chocolate cake with blue icing."

Meanwhile, Virat is now just one century away from becoming the player to score the most number of hundreds in ODI history. With India slated to play a minimum of two games in the ongoing World Cup, Virat can most likely achieve the feat in the days to come.

India's next fixture in the marquee tournament is against the Netherlands. The Men in Blue will take on the Dutch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, November 12.  The Rohit Sharma-led side has already cemented a berth in the semis but who will be their opponents in the semis is yet to be decided.