'The stuff of dreams' - Virat Kohli equals Sachin Tendulkar's ODI century record as India beat South Africa at World Cup

India’s Virat Kohli equalled Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 one day international centuries during his side’s World Cup victory against South Africa on Sunday.

Kohli hit 100 from 119 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata to reach the milestone, at a far quicker rate than Tendulkar did.

Kohli needed 277 innings in 289 ODIs, while Tendulkar did so - at a time when scoring was notably slower than the modern game - in 451 innings and 462 games.

The 35-year-old celebrated his birthday not just with the record, but with a victory as well.

South Africa got nowhere clear to challenging their opponents as they collapsed to 89 runs all out after just 27.1 overs. While they have scored more than 300 runs in each of the five matches they have batted first, they were narrow winners over Pakistan and lost to the Netherlands when they have chased a total.

India are now almost certain to top the table.

Kohli was scoring an average of 58.04 runs before his innings against South Africa.

At the same time, Kohli has moved onto 542 runs at the World Cup, the second highest score in the competition's history.

Speaking between innings, after he finished on 101 not out, he said: "It was a wicket that was a bit tricky to bat on. So we got a great start and when I got in my job was to keep the momentum. After the powerplay the pitch slowed down and the ball started gripping so my role was different. We want to string together a big partnership and bat to the end.

"We were not thinking we would get to 326 but that's what happens when you dig deep and take the game to the final few overs.

"Me and Shreyas had a lot of practice sessions before the Asia Cup. We said that this was the partnership to take centre stage though the middle overs. We are comfortable rotating the strike against the spinners and putting the loose balls away so credit to him."

Discussing drawing level with Tendulkar, he said: "Every opportunity to play for India is a big one and to do this on my birthday in front of a huge crowd is the stuff of dreams. It is something you dream about as a child.

"I am just happy to help the team as much as possible."

Kohli made his bow in one day internationals in 2008 against Sri Lanka, and was an erstwhile team-mate of Tendulkar.

Tendulkar remains the holder of the record for the most ODI career runs, with 18,426 to his name, and also holds 51 Test centuries. Kohli trails on the latter with 29 centuries to his name, putting him down in 16th.

Speaking on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tendulkar posted: "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!"

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