Virat Kohli's habit of surpassing legendary names and creating historic milestones doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon as the Indian batting maestro overtook Kumar Sangakkara to scale two spectacular milestones.
Playing against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday, November 5, Virat reached his fifty off 67 balls and is now just behind Sachin Tendulkar in the list of players to score the most number of fifty-plus scores in ODIs.
Virat now has 119 fifty-plus scores in ODI cricket whereas the 'Master Blaster' is on the top of the list with 145 such scores. Virat surpassed Sangakkara, who recorded 118 fifty-plus scores during his playing career. The 35-year-old batter also shattered yet another record of Sangakkara as the Delhi-born is now the third-leading run-getter in ODI World Cup history behind Sachin and Ricky Ponting.
Sangakkara aggregated 1532 runs in 37 World Cup matches during his playing days at a scintillating average of 56.74 with the help of five centuries and seven half-centuries. Sachin is at the top of of the ladder with 2278 runs in the marquee tournament and the former Australia skipper Ponting is second with 1743 runs in 46 World Cup fixtures.
India's playing XI:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Bench:
Ishan Kishan, Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Prasidh Krishna
Support Staff:
Rahul Dravid, Vikram Rathour, Paras Mhambrey, T Dilip
South Africa's playing XI:
Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
Bench:
Andile Phehlukwayo, Reeza Hendricks, Lizaad Williams, Gerald Coetzee
Support Staff:
Rob Walter, Jean-Paul Duminy, Rory Kleinveldt