Virat Kohli Tops Tendulkar, Sangakkara To Attain Huge World Record With Fighting 76 vs SA

Virat Kohli returned with scores of 38 and 76 at Centurion (AP)

Virat Kohli led India’s lone fight against South Africa by packing 76 intense runs on Day 3 of their first Test match. The batting veteran belted 12 boundaries and a six, and accounted for more than half of his side’s futile 131-run effort in the second innings to hand Proteas an easy series-leading win at Centurion.

The cricketer had also scored 38 runs during the first Indian innings on Day 1, where he emerged as the second highest contributor after KL Rahul’s classy eight Test century. Regardless of India’s huge defeat, Kohli’s 114-run match tally helped him attain a significant world record, previously held by his former teammate Sachin Tendulkar and Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara.

Virat Kohli achieves a huge calendar record

Through the course of his 76-run knock against South Africa at Centurion, Virat Kohli completed 2,000 runs in the year 2023 across all international formats. The cricketer achieved the feat in his final innings of the year, to finish with 2,048 runs from just 36 innings while maintaining an astonishing average of 66.06.

Remarkably, Kohli did not featured in a single T20I this year to commit himself onto ODIs and Test matches for India.

As it turned out, his 2023 achievement marked the seventh occasion where he had tallied 2,000 or more runs in a single calendar year. Former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara had achieved the feat six times in his glorious career, while all-time great Sachin Tendulkar minted 2,000 or more runs in five different years.

With Kohli going past them with his recent run-of-form, he has now attained a significant world record of tallying more than 2,000 runs the highest number of times in a single calendar year. Here is a look at an updated list of top batters with most 2,000-run calendar year tally to their names:

Virat Kohli will now turn up for Team India in the subsequent series-deciding second Test match at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town. The much-awaited fixture will be played between January 3 and January 7.

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