Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli plays a shot en route to his 18th Test ton at Eden Gardens.IANS

After a rare failure in the first innings, where he was dismissed for a 11-ball duck, India captain Virat Kohli was back at his best, constructing a fine century at Kolkata's Eden Gardens against Sri Lanka today (November 20).

Match scorecard

On the fifth and final day of the rain-hit first Test, fortunes swung and Kohli stood like a rock at one end to register his 18th Test century. He has 32 tons in One Day Internationals.

Soon after reaching the milestone (104 not out, 119 balls, 12x4, 2x6), Kohli opted to declare India's second innings at 352/8 in 88.4 overs, setting a tricky target of 231, in a minimum of 47 overs, for the visitors.

Kohli's knock in his 61st Test was a special one on Monday. It was the Delhi right-hander's 50th three-figure mark in international cricket. He is the joint fastest to the milestone with South Africa's Hashim Amla. Both took 348 innings.

Many believe Kohli is the only batsman who could go near or surpass batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's world record of 100 international hundreds (51 in Tests, 49 in ODIs). And now he is at the halfway mark to the Master Blaster's incredible feat.

At 29, Kohli is already the youngest to reach 50-international hundreds milestone. He is also the owner of several batting records in the game and is set to conquer more heights.

Today's century was Kohli's 11th as captain, joining Sunil Gavaskar on top of the table for most tons by India Test skipper. Second in the list is Mohammad Azhauddin with nine followed by Tendulkar with seven.

Kohli is the most successful Indian captain so far in terms of win percentage (65.51%). He is two victories away from matching Sourav Ganguly's (21) record of second most wins by Indian skipper. The list is headed by MS Dhoni with 27 successes.

The second Test between India and Sri Lanka will start on November 24 in Nagpur. The third and final game of the series is in Delhi from December 2.

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