India skipper Virat Kohli was on a record-breaking spree during the sixth and final ODI against South Africa at Centurion. The Indian skipper’s unbeaten 129 helped India beat the hosts by eight wickets and clinch the series 5-1.
During his dominating innings, Kohli became the fastest to cross 17,000-run mark in international cricket, surpassing Hashim Amla. The 29-year-old amassed a total of 558 runs in the series – record for most number of runs scored by a batsman in a bilateral ODI series ever.
His form has been ‘Bradmanesque’ but he’s not ready to take it any easy. Speaking about his form after the match, Kohli said he wants to make “each and every remaining day” of his international career count.
“I have got eight or nine years left in my career and I want to make the most of every day. It’s a blessing that I am healthy and getting to captain my country,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
In the six-match series, Kohli smashed three hundreds to take his tally of centuries to 35. He’s only behind Sachin Tendulkar (49) in the list of highest century-makers in ODI cricket. 30 of Kohli’s 35 centuries have come in winning causes.
With 9588 runs in 208 matches, Kohli is also India’s fifth-highest scorer in the 50-over format. He’s behind Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid () and MS Dhoni.
The India captain also has 21 centuries in the Test format.
In December last year, Kohli hit his sixth double ton in Tests during India’s third and final Test against Sri Lanka at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. He now has most Test double hundreds as captain, overtaking West Indies great Brian Lara’s record.
He also equalled Virender Sehwag and Tendulkar’s record for most double centuries in Test cricket by an Indian batsman.
The right-handed batsman enjoyed a sensational run in 2016 across formats. He did even better in 2017 and finished as the highest run-scorer in ODIs, amassing 1460 runs including six hundreds and seven fifties from 26 matches.
Kohli is the only batsman in the world to average more than 50 in all three formats, which has been the case for a while now. He is currently averaging 53.40 in Tests, 58.10 in ODIs and 52.86 in T20Is.
