Virat Kohli becomes the fastest to smash 5000 ODI runs a captain

Indian skipper Virat Kohli is a run-machine and whenever he sets his foot on the ground, new records are made. The third and final ODI between Indian and Australia was no different. Kohli played a superb knock of 80 odd runs and broke a massive record that was set by none other than the former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

On Sunday, the cricketer from Delhi became the fastest ODI captain to score 5000 runs in the 50-over format. The right-hand batsman made that record with a brilliant cover-drive off Mitchell Starc during the decisive game against Australia in Bengaluru.

Kohli took only 82 innings to break the record set by Dhoni, who took 127 innings to smash 5000 runs as a captain. Behind Dhoni is former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting who got there in 131 innings while South African great Graeme Smith is fourth on the list with 135 innings.

Former Indian captain and the current President of the BCCI, Sourav Ganguly, is now at the fifth spot as he crossed the 5000 run-mark in 136 innings.

The Indian skipper was very instrumental in yesterday’s victory over the Aussies. Virat played an amazing knock of 89 in just 91 deliveries, including nine boundaries. Before getting dismissed, Kohli stitched a match-winning partnership of 137 runs for the second wicket.

The Indians were given a target of 287 by the Kangaroos and started the chase on a miraculous note. Both openers, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul had a wonderful 69-run opening stand to set up the foundation of a successful chase. Sharma went on to strike a well-deserved hundred and made that his team is not behind the desired run-rate. After Rahul’s dismissal, the onus of supporting Rohit was on Kohli’s shoulders and he showed the world why he is considered to be the best white-ball batsman.

Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa tried their best to stop the Indian batsman for scoring freely but could not get the same kind of response from the fellow bowlers. Pacers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins went for plenty and that was the main reason that Australia could not stage a comeback at any stage of the game.

Kohli was awarded the Man of the Series for his consistency. He scored 183 runs in 3 innings at an average of 61, including two 50+ scores.