New Delhi: Virat Kohli woke up on Thursday as a 38-year-old, and as the owner of a record that settles one of cricket’s longest-running debates. On the eve of his birthday, in the rain-hit first ODI against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland, Kohli passed Sachin Tendulkar to become the highest run-scorer in ODI run chases — and he did it in the most Kohli way possible, with a match-winning innings.
Kohli needed 54 runs to go past Tendulkar’s mark of 8,720 runs in ODI chases. He finished the Auckland match on 8,741, after a blistering 74 from 51 balls, with 13 fours and a six, that carried India to a five-wicket DLS win and a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. India, chasing a revised target of 143 from 32 overs after New Zealand were bowled out for 185, reached the target in 22.4 overs, with Kohli the dominant partner in a 113-run second-wicket stand with captain Shubman Gill, who made 37.
The numbers behind the record are what make it so emphatic. Kohli has scored his 8,741 chase runs in 169 innings at an average of 66.21 and a strike rate of 95.03, with 30 centuries and 46 half-centuries. Tendulkar finished with 8,720 runs in 232 innings at 42.33. In successful chases alone, Kohli’s record is even more remarkable: 6,477 runs at an average of 89.95, with 25 centuries. It is the statistical case, in full, for the title he has carried for a decade — the greatest chaser the one-day game has seen.
Auckland brought two more milestones with it. Kohli equalled Ricky Ponting’s record for the most ODI runs against New Zealand, moving level on 1,971, and he became the first batter in history to score 13,000 ODI runs batting at No. 3, reaching exactly that mark during his innings at an average of 61.61 in the position. Born in Delhi on November 5, 1988, Kohli made his ODI debut in August 2008 and now owns 86 international centuries — 30 in Tests, 55 in ODIs and one in T20Is — alongside more than 28,000 international runs.
There was a lighter moment too. Before the series opener, Eden Park chief executive Nick Sautner presented Kohli with a birthday cake, a gesture that went viral before a ball was bowled. Kohli then gave the fans their own gift the next day, walking in during the second over after Rohit Sharma fell for a six-ball duck and taking control of a chase that had briefly looked tricky.
The tributes poured in on Thursday morning, led by former head coach Ravi Shastri, who posted a heartfelt birthday wish for his former captain. For India, the timing could hardly be better: the second ODI is in Wellington on Saturday, November 7, and the man who has just rewritten the chase record book arrives there in the form of his life — and, at 38, still hungry for more.
