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[Saba Sports News] On another day, with a breezy half-century within reach and a magical ’49’ appearing inevitable, Virat Kohli once again fell short. In World Cup 2023, the former India captain surpassed the fifty-run mark for the fourth time but couldn’t reach the coveted three-figure score. In front of a packed Wankhede crowd in Mumbai, Kohli had the opportunity to match his idol Sachin Tendulkar’s record at his home ground. However, he was eventually dismissed by a slower delivery from Dilshan Madushanka, falling 12 runs short of the highly anticipated milestone.
Despite missing out on that elusive record, Kohli did manage to break one of Sachin’s long-standing ODI feats during his knock of 88 off 94 against Sri Lanka in India’s seventh World Cup 2023 game. Just before reaching his 70th ODI fifty, Kohli crossed the 1000-run mark in 2023, becoming the third Indian batsman to achieve this milestone in the calendar year, following Shubman Gill (1426 runs) and Rohit Sharma (1060 runs). This marked the eighth time in his illustrious career that Kohli has scored 1000 or more runs in a single calendar year, surpassing Sachin’s record of seven such scores, the last of which happened in 2007.
Additionally, Kohli moved past India captain Rohit to claim the second spot for the most fifty-plus knocks in World Cups with 13 to his name. Only Sachin stands ahead of him with 21 such scores in 44 innings.
Kohli and Shubman Gill were steering India towards a substantial partnership, with Kohli approaching a century. However, Dilshan Madushanka, who had earlier dismissed Rohit, struck twice in two overs to remove both Gill and Kohli, ending their 189-run partnership for the second wicket.