Virat Kohli slams 50th international ton, second Indian after Sachin Tendulkar to do so

Virat Kohli brought up his 18th Test ton during the last day of the first Test between India and Sri Lanka at Eden Garden in Kolkata on Monday. (Source: PTI)

Virat Kohli’s phenomenal run of form continued as he slammed his 18th Test century at Eden Gardens on Monday. With this, he also became the second Indian batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to register 50 international hundreds. En route to his scintillating hundred, which was also his first at the iconic Eden Gardens, India’s run-machine continued to break records at will. As of now, this phenomenon does not seem like stopping anytime soon. So herein we take a look at the slew of records which he has broken during the first Test against Sri Lanka.

In the list of most number of international centuries, Kohli is now at the eight spot behind Brian Lara who has 53.

However, with 18 Test hundreds, Kohli has now raced ahead of Dilip Vengsarkar tally of 17. He is currently sixth on the list of Indians with the most number of Test centuries. Only Mohammed Azharuddin (22), Virender Sehwag (23), Sunil Gavaskar (34), Rahul Dravid (36) and Sachin Tendulkar (51) are ahead of him.

In the list of fastest players to reach 50 centuries in International cricket, Kohli equalled Hashim Amla’s record of achieving it in 348 innings. Sachin Tendulkar stands second with 376 innings.

In terms of averages, Kohli is currently the only batsman in the world to average more than 50 in all three formats. In Tests, he averages 50.13 while in ODIs he averages 55.74 and 52.86 in T20s.

In the list of most centuries as a skipper, the 29-year-old has equalled former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar’s tally of 11.

In 2017, Virat Kohli has already scored 9 international hundreds. Only former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith have achieved the feat so far.

Kohli’s last hundred had also come against Sri Lanka, during the Lankan tour in July. Ironically, Kohli is the also the first Indian captain to score a duck and a century in the same Test.

Meanwhile, the Test match at Eden Gardens also witnessed a rare phenomenon where all the opposition wickets were picked up by the Indian seamers. This is the first time that not a single wicket was bagged by an Indian spinner in a Test match.

After previous five result-oriented Tests at Eden Gardens between 2010 and 2016, the Test between India and Sri Lanka has failed to produce a result.

Of the 41 Tests played at Eden Gardens, 12 have been won by India — 9 lost and 20 drawn. No other Test venue in India has witnessed so many drawn Tests — the next highest being Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi at 14.

Indian fast bowlers took 17 wickets in this Test — the most by them in a Test match in India. Three times vs England at Chennai in 1933-34; vs Pakistan at Delhi in 1979-80 and vs Pakistan at Kolkata in 1998-99, the Indian pacers have taken 16 wickets in a Test match.

Cheteshwar Pujara became the ninth batsman to have batted on all five days of a Test match. He has joined ML Jaisimha, Geoff Boycott, Kim Hughes, Allan Lamb, Ravi Shastri, Adrian Griffith, Andrew Flintoff and Alviro Petersen.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s match figures of eight for 96 (4/88 + 4/8) are his best ever in a Test match, obliterating the 6 for 46 (5/33 + 1/13) vs West Indies at Gros Islet in August 2016.

With inputs from PTI