Indian skipper Virat Kohli carried his T20I form into the ODI format on Tuesday scoring his 61st half-century score in the ODI series opener against England at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.
Kohli brought his fifty off 50 balls, laced with six boundaries, which is his 61st in the format and 104th fifty-plus score in ODIs, which has taken him past South African great Jacques Kallis, who scored 103 fifty-plus scores in 328 matches. Kohli's tally stands fourth in the all-time list after Sachin Tendulkar's 145 fifty-plus scores in the format, Kumar Sangakkara's 118 and Ricky Ponting's 112.
The fifty is also his 27th across formats against England, taking him past Rahul Dravid for the most fifty-plus scores, with only Sachin's tally of 32 standing ahead of him. 11 off those came in the ODIs which keeps him alongside Rahul Dravid on that list with Sachin, once again, leading the list with his 12 ODI fifty-plus scores against England.
Kohli eventually managed 56 runs off 60 balls before holing it out to the fielder at deep midwicket. With the knock, he became the second Indian batsman to score 10000 international runs at home after Sachin (14192 runs), sixth overall after Ponting (13117), Kallis (12305), Sangakkara (12043), and Mahela Jayawardene (11679), but is the fastest to the feat having reached the milestone in just his 176th game on home soil.
