File image of Virat Kohli
Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday broke former skipper MS Dhoni's world record to become the fastest captain ever to 5000 ODI runs. He achieved the feat during the third and final ODI match of the series against Australia at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Kohli required only 17 runs to reach the milestone.
While Kohli achieved the feat in his 82nd innings as the captain of the Indian cricket team, Dhoni managed it in 127 innings. Australia's Ricky Ponting stands third in the list of fastest to the milestone - 131 innings.
Least inns to 5000 ODI runs as captain:
82 Virat Kohli
127 MS DHONI
131 R Ponting
135 G Smith
136 S Ganguly
151 M Azharuddin
157 A Ranatunga
201 S Fleming
Meanwhile, Kohli Indian captain to the milestone of 5000 ODI runs as a skipper after Dhoni (6641 runs), Mohammad Azharuddin (5239 runs) and Sourav Ganguly (5104 runs). And overall, will be the eighth player to join the club. Ponting stands atop with 8497 runs and others on the list are New Zealand's Stephen Fleming (6295), Arjuna Ranatunga (5608 runs), and South Africa's Graeme Smith (5416 runs).
Kohli scored 94 runs in the two matches against Australia in the series. In the opener, he batted at No.4 and scored only 16 runs, but on returning to his preferred No.3 spot, he carved a well-crafted 78 in Rajkot to guide India to a series-levelling win.
Talking about the match, Indian bowling attack staged a wonderful comeback after the 127-run partnership by Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne for the fourth-wicket. Following the latter's departure after his valiant maiden half-century, Australia added only 113 runs in 19.3 overs for the remaining six wickets despite Smith's 131- the third-highest score by a visiting batsman in India in ODIs. Mohammed Shami was the pick of the bowlers with his 4 for 63 while Jasprit Bumrah emerged as economical conceding 3.8 runs per over in his 10 overs quota although going wicketless.
