Indian captain Virat Kohli came in for high praise after he scaled another peak in his international career last night, September 3, during the 5th ODI against Sri Lanka.
Kohli equalled Australian great Ricky Ponting with his 30th ton in ODIs. The right-hander now stands behind batting legend Sachin Tendulkar in the all-time list of century makers in the 50-over format.
Tendulkar, who owns several records, has 49 ODI centuries. Kohli is now joint-second with Ponting with 30 from 194 matches.
Kohli's 110 not out on Sunday night ensured India completed a 5-0 series sweep over the hosts in Colombo. This was the third whitewash by the Indian team under Kohli's leadership.
Former skipper Sunil Gavaskar called Kohli's achievement as "beyond phenomenal" as he spoke to the host broadcaster "Sony Ten" after the match.
"It is beyond phenomenal. I have watched most of his (30) hundreds and none of them were ugly," Gavaskar said.
Another former cricketer, Ajay Jadeja too agreed with Gavaskar in the TV studio as said Kohli was not "ordinary human".
According to Jadeja, Kohli was "special". He stated that Tendulkar and Kohli were not "ordinary" when it came to the feats on the cricket field.
During his century knock on Sunday, Kohli also went past 1,000 runs in ODIs for the year. Now, the Delhi batsman has more ODI centuries (30) than his age – 28.
India achieved a rare feat in Sri Lanka as they whitewashed the hosts in both Tests (3-0) and ODIs (5-0). Now they turn focus on Australia in a limited overs home series this month. They play 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is starting from September 17 in Chennai.
Talking about the Australian series, Kohli said, "It will be a challenging series against Australia. We have been playing some good and consistent cricket for some time. So, this series win in Sri Lanka should boost the confidence the boys."
