Paarl: Adding another feather to his cap, Virat Kohli on Wednesday surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to become India’s highest run-getter in ODI cricket away from home during the first ODI of the three-match series against South Africa at Boland Park, here.
Kohli (5057) needed just nine runs to go past Tendular’s run tally (5065 runs in 147 innings) when he walked out to bat during India’s chase of 297 and got the required runs quite comfortably.
With this, the star batter has now become the highest run-getter for India in Away ODIs. He is followed by former India captain MS Dhoni (4520 runs in 124 inns), Rahul Dravid (3998 runs in 110 inns) and Sourav Ganguly (3468 runs in 105 inns).
The 33-year-old also had 1,287 runs against the Proteas ahead of the first ODI and surpassed two Indian batting stalwarts – Dravid and Ganguly, as he reached the 27th run in his innings. The former Indian captain remains only behind Tendulkar, who has scored 2,001 runs against South Africa in ODIs.
However, the wait for Virat’s 71st international century continued as he got out after scoring 51 off 63 off the bowling of Tabraiz Shamsi in the 29th over of India’s innings.
Notably, Kohli has begun a new chapter in his career, playing as a pure batter for the first time in over five years in any format of the game.
The batter had quit Test captaincy earlier this month, finishing as the most successful skipper for India in the longest format of the game. He was sacked as ODI captain in December, months after he decided to give up captaincy in the T20I format of the game.
(IANS)
