Kohli eclipses Tendulkar, shakes up record books with sublime fifty against Bangladesh

The Indian cricket team marched to victory in their final Super 12 game at the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 with a five-run win through the DLS method against Bangladesh on Wednesday. Virat Kohli yet again emerged as the best performer for the Indian lineup as he hit a sensational knock of 64 runs in 44 balls to take India’s score to 184/6. While Kohli broke a unique record with his half-century knock, India went on to defend the revised target of 151 runs in 16 overs and continue to be in the semi-final race.

En route to his third fifty-plus score in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022, Kohli surpassed Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar to become the all-time highest run scorer for India in Australia. Tendulkar is widely regarded as the best batsman of his generation and he scored 3,300 runs on Australian soil at an average of 42.85 in 84 innings. Kohli, on the other hand, now has a total of 3,301 runs to his name in Australia in 68 innings at an average of 55.94. 

Meanwhile, Kohli’s match-winning knock of 64 runs also took him past former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene in a major World Cup record book. The former India skipper is now the all-time leading run scorer in the history of the T20 World Cup. He has now scored 1065 runs in the prestigious tournament in 23 innings at an average of 88.75 while registering 13 half-century knocks.

India scripts spectacular win against Bangla Tigers

Kohli remained unbeaten at the end of India’s innings with Ravichandran Ashwin on the other end. Early on in the innings, Kohli and KL Rahul stitched a second wicket stand of 67 runs off 37 balls before KL was dismissed on 50 runs off 32 balls. Kohli then teamed up with Suryakumar to add 38 runs in the third wicket stand, before the no. 4 batter was dismissed on 30 off 16.

While Bangladesh looked firm with their plans of achieving their target, heavy showers interrupted the game as Bangladesh were 66/0 in seven overs. However, the target was revised to 151 in 16 overs for a win, which followed an electrifying fielding effort by KL Rahul to dismiss half-centurion Liton Das. This opened a flurry of wickets for Bangladesh as they ended up scoring 145/6 in 16 overs to end up on the losing side.