Virat Kohli ended his poor run of form by smashing a brilliant against South Africa in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 final in Barbados on Saturday, June 29. Kohli produced his first fifty of the tournament to keep India on track for a big total after an embarrassing collapse in powerplay at Kensington Oval.
India lost three wickets early in the powerplay but Virat Kohli kept India alive in the game by smashing his 39th fifty-plus score in T20Is. Kohli equalled Babar Azam's all-time record for most fifty-plus scores in the shortest form of the game to add another milestone to his cabinet.
Most 50+ scores in T20Is
- Virat Kohli - 39 in 118 innings
- Babar Azam - 39 in 117 innings
- Rohit Sharma - 37 in 151 innings
- Mohammad Rizwan - 30 in 89 innings
- David Warner - 29 in 110 innings
Meanwhile, Kohli also surpassed Babar in the record for most T20I runs after scoring 34 runs in the final. Kohli lost his top spot in the run-scoring chart to Babar first and then to Rohit Sharma but his fifty in the final took him past Babar.
Most T20I runs
- Rohit Sharma - 4231 runs in 151 innings
- Virat Kohli - 4188 runs in 117 innings
- Babar Azam - 4145 runs in 116 innings
Virat Kohli top-scored with 76 runs off 59 balls and Axar Patel added crucial 47 runs as India posted the highest-ever team total of 176/7 in the tournament finals. South African bowlers were off to a sensational start with three wickets for 34 but Kohli and Axar added a potential match-defining 72 runs for the fourth wicket to keep India on track for a big total.
Shivam Dube also displayed his big-hitting skills by smashing 27 runs off just 16 balls but the likes of Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav failed to impress in the final. For the Proteas, Keshav Maharaj and Anrich Nortje took two wickets each while Marco Jansen proved the costliest with one for 49 figures.