Virat Kohli displayed his best game against Pakistan again as he smashed his maiden ODI fifty in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 tournament. Kohli recorded a brilliant fifty in the Super 4 match at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday, September 11 to surpass MS Dhoni's runs tally in Asia Cup (ODI) history.
Dhoni scored 648 runs in just 16 ODI innings in Asia Cup matches with an average of 64.80 and was India's third-highest leading run-getter in the tournament history. Kohli scored only 4 runs against Pakistan and didn't get a chance to bat against Nepal in the group-stage round. He overtook Dhoni's runs tally after scoring 33 runs in the Super 4 match and also surpassed legendary Sri Lankan cricketers Marvan Atapattu, Aravinda de Silva and Mahela Jayawardene to enter the top 10 list.
Most runs in Asia Cup (ODI) history:
- Sanath Jayasuriya - 1220 runs
- Kumar Sangakkara - 1075 runs
- Sachin Tendulkar - 971 runs
- Rohit Sharma - 886 runs
- Mushfiqur Rahim - 830
- Shoaib Malik - 786 runs
- Arjuna Ranatunga - 741 runs
- Virat Kohli - 676* runs
- Mahela Jayawardene - 674 runs
- MS Dhoni - 648 runs
Virat also surpassed his former teammate in another huge record for the most number of time 1000-plus international runs in a calendar year. Dhoni and the current head coach Rahul Dravid recorded 1000-plus runs 11 times as Kohli reached the 1000-run make in 2023 to make it 12 times in international cricket with four-digit runs in a calendar year.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohl and KL Rahul resumed India's innings from 147/2 on reserve day and quickly put India in a dominant position with an unbeaten 150-run stand for the third wicket with brilliant fifties.
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan Playing XI: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf
