Virat Kohli equals Sachin Tendulkar's world record with 49th ODI hundred at Eden Gardens on 35th birthday

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IND vs SA: Virat Kohli brought up his much-awaited 49th ODI hundred and equalled Sachin Tendulkar's record for most hundreds in the history of the World Cup 2023 on Sunday, November 5.

The star batter hit his 48th ODI hundred against Bangladesh in Pune. In the very next match against New Zealand in Dharamsala, Kohli fell just five runs short of the 49th ton. The former India captain was on the cusp of equalling Tendulkar's record at his home ground Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, but missed the opportunity by 12 runs.

However, he made sure to gift himself the record-equalling hundred on his hundred in front of 70,000 fans at historic Eden Gardens against South Africa. Overall, it was Kohli's 80th international hundred.

Kohli is just the third India batter after Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli to hit a hundred on his birthday. During the course of the innings, Kohli also became the first India batter to cross the 500-run mark in the ongoing World Cup 2023.

Kohli walked in the middle amid a rousing reception in the sixth over of India batting innings and took charge straightaway. On a difficult batting surface, Kohli brought in all his experience to move confidently towards the milestone, and put India in a strong position in the process.

His third wicket partnership with Shreyas Iyer accounted for 134 runs off 158 balls. 22, 36 and unbeaten 41-run partnership followed with KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja respectively.

He brought up his 119-ball hundred with a single off Kagiso Rabada on the third delivery of the 49th over. Notably, Kohli's first ODI and international hundred also came at Eden Gardens back in 2009 against Sri Lanka. Gautam Gambhir had famously given his Man of the Match Award to a young Virat Kohli then.

Virat Kohli's subdued celebration after hitting 49th hundred

Kohli ran the historic single amid thousands of flashing mobile phones and celebrated the feat in a low-key fashion. He just acknowledge the crowd and his teammates by raising his bat and hugged Ravindra Jadeja in the middle.

India's greated number three batter scored 101 unbeaten runs off 121 balls. The innings consisted of 10 boundaries. Kohli became the second India batter to score 6000 ODI runs in India. He is also second on the list of highest run-scorers in World Cup 2023. He is just two runs behind Quinton de Kock's tally of 545 runs.

"I'm grateful to god for giving me the chance to play and contribute to the team's success. It's great to get a hundred on my birthday in front of this big crowd at this great venue," Kohli said after hitting his 49th ODI hundred.