"Virat Kohli Is Not Greater Than Sachin Tendulkar..."- AB de Villiers

Virat Kohli got to his 49th ODI ton in the match against South Africa in Kolkata. He scored an unbeaten 101 as India posted 326/5 in their 50 overs. The Indian bowlers then bundled out the Proteas for just 83 as India won the match by 243 runs to notch up their eighth win on the trot.

Having equaled Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 49 ODI tons, he is just one short of getting to 50 ODI tons and will become the first batsman ever to achieve that feat. It took Kohli just 277 to score his 49th hundred, compared to Tendulkar’s 451.

Kohli found form in the Asia Cup 2022 last year in September. Since then he has scored 9 centuries including two at the World Cup, and has 79 tons in international cricket, which makes him second only to fellow India great Sachin Tendulkar (100 centuries).

This was after a bleak period from November 2019 and September 2022 where he failed to score a century. He scored 10 fifty-plus scores in that period but could not convert them into hundreds.

AB be Devilliers on his Youtube channel spoke about Kohli equalling Sachin’s milestone. He said that it is quick even by modern standards at the pace at which Kohli has equalled Sachin’s record.

“It has taken Virat 277 innings to get to 49 hundreds. That is very quick even though it’s a new generation kind of thing that is lightning fast,” De Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

“The two of us are really close. We are basically brothers and I am very happy for Virat. It’s a new generation and you can’t really compare numbers, especially the time in which Sachin did it – 451 innings as against Virat’s 277. He’s done it in a faster time, but the game has changed dramatically since Sachin played. 250 in an ODI innings is almost laughable these days on a good wicket. You look at 400″ he further commented.

Virat Kohli Is Good At Giving Respect To Other People: AB De Villiers

Ab De Villiers further said how Kohli always spoke about Sachin being his inspiration and why he started playing the game. He said that one of Kohli’s biggest traits a cricket has been the respect he has for other people.

“Virat also said that in his interview – Sachin will always be the greatest. Virat is always really good like that, giving respect to other people. Especially when he breaks records or when his stats are looking better, he is always the first to say, ‘no, no, by no means am I greater than this guy’. Maybe he is, maybe he is not. That’s not the point. The point is, he has scored 49 hundreds and that’s equal to Sachin’s record,” said De Villiers.

India will now play the Netherlands in their last league game on November 12 before taking on New Zealand in the first semi-final in Mumbai. Kohli so far has scored 543 runs in eight matches for India.

Also Read: Revealed: Why Mitchell Starc Is Not Playing Today’s Match vs Bangladesh?