Virat Kohli goes past Jayawardene's ODI tally, moves to fifth on all-time list

Virat Kohli scored his 65th ODI half-century in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday

Indian batting great, Virat Kohli has finally found his lionised best after the dip of his life in the last three years. After beginning 2023 with a spellbinding century at Guwahati, Kohli has something special to script his name in history books again.

The modern-day great has surpassed Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene's ODI tally of 12,650 runs and has become the fifth-highest run-getter in ODI cricket.

Now, the 34-year-old is just behind Sachin Tendulkar (18426), Kumar Sangakkara (14234), Ricky Ponting (13704) and Sanath Jayasuriya (13430) in the list of the all-timers.

Prior to this game, the ODI No.6 ranked batter needed 63 more runs in the format to go past Jayawardene's run-tally that the Sri Lankan got to 418 innings. Meanwhile, the Indian maestro has just played 249 innings in ODIs.

In terms of number of centuries in this format, the Delhi batter is just behind his mentor Tendulkar, who has 49 tons to his name and just four more than Kohli.

In this fixture against the Asian Champions, the Chasemaster got a solid foundation laid by the opening stand of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. 

However, Kohli, too, was equally good from the word go. He started off by gashing boundaries and rotating the strike, before getting to his 65th ODI fifty in just 48 deliveries. 

At the moment, he is batting at 63 not out, with Shreyas Iyer at the other end. India are at 234-2 after 34.2 overs, while KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav still waiting for their turn.

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