"Almost Laughable": AB De Villiers On Virat Kohli Equalling Sachin Tendulkar's ODI Century Record

Star India batter Virat Kohli scored his 49th ODI century to equal former teammate Sachin Tendulkar's all-time record last week. Kohli, who was celebrating his 35th birthday, hit an unbeaten 101 as India defeated South Africa in their Cricket World Cup match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. In terms of innings, it took Kohli just 277 to score his 49th hundred, compared to Tendulkar's 451. Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers feels Kohli's numbers are too impressive even by modern standards.

"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. The two of us are really close. We are basically brothers and I am very happy for Virat," de Villiers said on his YouTube channel.

However, de Villiers, who was Kohli's teammate at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), said it's not ideal to compare both batters as they belong to different eras.

"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 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 added.

After Kohli equalled his record, Tendulkar wished that the 35-year-old will break his record in the coming days.

"Well played Virat. It took me 365 days to go from 49 to 50 earlier this year. I hope you go from 49 to 50 and break my record in the next few days. Congratulations!!," Tendulkar had posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team Virat Kohli AB de Villiers Sachin Tendulkar World Cup 2023 Cricket