Indian batting stalwart Virat Kohli graced Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium and batted like he has at the venue in the last few innings. The former Indian captain batted like a king when his kingdom was in a spot of bother losing two wickets in quick succession. Continuing from his overnight score of 8, Kohli slowly got into his innings with regular strike rotation and boundaries and regular intervals before going into an overdrive mode after he crossed 70. Kohli brought up his 47th ODI century along with 13,000 runs in the format as Team India continued to punish Pakistan team in the Asia Cup 2023 Super Fours match.
Kohli became the fifth batter to score 13,000 runs in ODIs and was the fastest to reach the landmark. If that wasn't enough, this was Kohli's joint second-highest century in the ODI Asia Cup (4th) it was also his fourth consecutive century at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium in as many innings.
Kohli equalled Hashim Amla's record, who scored four centuries at Centurion in four consecutive games.
Most centuries in consecutive innings at one venue
4 - Hashim Amla, Centurion
4* - VIRAT KOHLI, Colombo RPS
3 - Zaheer Abbas, Lahore
3 - Saeed Anwar, Sharjah
3 - Sanath Jayasuriya, Sydney
3 - Quinton de Kock, Centurion
3* - Rohit Sharma, Birmingham
Kohli was aided greatly by KL Rahul's magnificent ton on return as the wicketkeeper batter was playing for the first time in nearly four months. Being the mad accelerator that he is, Kohli was smashing anything and everything he faced after completing his century.
Kohli was on 63 off 64 balls before scoring 59 in his last 30 balls that he faced. Kohli and Rahul's unbeaten 233-run partnership helped India notch up their joint-highest ODI score against Pakistan of 356 runs and the Men in Green have a huge mountain to climb in front of them.
