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World Cup 2023 | Virat Kohli Surpasses Sangakkara For Huge WC Record

Aakash Saini

image-loleuatuVirat Kohli in action at the 2023 World Cup (AP)

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Virat Kohli listed his sixth fifty-plus score of the 2023 World Cup through his latest batting spectacle against South Africa. Turning up for his side at the Eden Gardens on his 35th birthday, the batting veteran led India’s recovery with a counterattacking third-wicket stand with Shreyas Iyer.

Remarkably, Kohli also eclipsed Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara for a huge World Cup record through his effort, as he continues to climb up the leading run-scorers chart of the mega event.

Virat Kohli surpasses Sangakkara, inches closer to Ponting

Virat Kohli, who unfurled match-winning masterclasses against Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, expanded his World Cup 2023 batting form with yet another notable outing, this time against a rampaging South African unit in Kolkata.

Shortly after reaching his half-century, the cricketer surpassed former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara’s tally of World Cup runs, thus becoming the third leading run-getter in the history of the sport’s grandest stage.

Sangakkara retired in 2015 with 1,532 World Cup runs to his name, while Kohli currently holds over 1,550 runs to his account. As of now, the Indian batting veteran and modern-day legend is only behind cricketing greats Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar in the all-time World Cup list.

While Ponting piled up 1,743 runs from 42 World Cup innings, Tendulkar leads the legendary pack with 2,278 World Cup runs from just 44 innings spanning six different editions of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli’s World Cup 2023 teammate Rohit Sharma is himself closing in on Sangakkara’s record, and is expected to scale the same during the course of the ongoing tournament.

Sharma is currently tied at number five alongside Australia’s David Warner among the all-time World Cup run-scorers with 1,420 runs. Notably, both dashing openers hold the highest average (61.73) among all World Cup cricketers with more than 1,250 runs to their name.