India thrash South Africa by 8 wickets in final ODI; win series 5-1
Indian skipper extended his purplest of purple patch by scoring his 35th ODI ton ensuring India won the 6 match series 5-1. Winning the toss in the final ODI Kohli had no hesitation in bowling first on what looked like a good track to bat on. India went in with one change Shardul Thakur came in for Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and picked up 4 wickets. As had been the trend throughout the series the bowlers did a great job of restricting the Proteas to just 204. In reply India got there with 8 wickets and plenty of overs to spare.
Virat Kohli: The world record breaking juggernaut
Before the start of the series Virat Kohli had no ODI hundred in South Africa in a span of 16 days and the next 6 matches he smashed 3. With his 35th ODI ton, Virat Kohli also crossed the 9500 run mark in his 208th game bettering that of Saurav Ganguly (246) and Sachin Tendulkar (247). Virat Kohli also made a record of making the most runs in any of the bilateral series (558) during the ODI series against South Africa. He left behind Kevin Pietersen of England of was the record holder since 2005. Pietersen scored 454 runs in 6 matches on the tour of South Africa in 2005.
As soon as Virat Kohli scored his 31st run in the Centurion ODI, he made yet another record for himself. He became the quickest to 17000 runs in International cricket. Kohli got to the milestone in 361 innings. Kohli also holds the record for the quickest to 16000 and 15000 international runs. Earlier this record was held by Hashim Amla of South Africa.