India batter Virat Kohli, one of the all-time ODI greats, recorded his 46th century in the format on January 15, 2023, during the third and final match of the three-ODI series against Sri Lanka. Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat first, and he himself started well, scoring 42 runs. India then saw a 131-run partnership for the second wicket between Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli.
Shubman Gill continued his glorious form with the bat and scored his second ODI century, finishing with 116 runs, with 14 fours and 2 sixes to his name. However, Virat Kohli continued to celebrate his return to form as he smashed his second century in the series and third in his last four ODIs, reaching the milestone in 85 balls.
This was his 46th ODI ton, just 4 away from breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI tons and becoming the first batter to reach the 50-ODI tons milestone. With this century, Kohli broke his own record and went past Sachin Tendulkar as well in the list of most tons against a single opponent.
He is now the only batter to score 10 centuries against an ODI team, Sri Lanka. He also broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most centuries at home. This was Kohli’s 21st such knock in 101 innings in India.
En route to his century, Kohli pipped Kallis (5186 runs) to become the third-highest run-getter at home in the format. Only Sachin Tendulkar (6976) and Ponting (5521) have more runs than Kohli at home. Furthermore, during his superlative knock, Kohli entered the top five of the all-time highest run-getters in the ODI format.
On reaching the 64-run mark in his knock, Kohli surpassed Sri Lanka legend Mahela Jayawardene, who amassed 12650 runs in his illustrious career in 50-over cricket. Above him are Sachin Tendulkar (18426), Kumar Sangakkara (14234), Ponting (13704) and Sanath Jayasuriya (13430)
