Virat Kohli’s Chase Mastery Through Numbers
Beast mode has officially been activated again by Virat Kohli as he was announced the player of the Series after scoring three consecutive back-to-back fifty-plus runs.
This includes back-to-back centuries in the first two games of the three-match ODI series against South Africa. This is no surprise to anyone, given his performance throughout the series. Kohli — the Modern-day Legend — has always set the standard for other players to follow when it comes to ODI run-chase performances.
Over 8,200 Runs in Chases
Virat Kohli has become the second-most prolific scorer in one-day internationals (14,557 runs) behind Sachin Tendulkar (18,426 runs), and the majority of those runs (8,203 runs) have come while batting second. Virat Kohli achieved the milestone with only 162 innings compared to Sachin Tendulkar’s 8,720 runs in 232 innings when batting second. According to ESPNcricinfo, Virat Kohli has the highest average (65.10) of all players who have reached 3,500 runs while batting second.
Record 28 Tons for Kohli
Virat Kohli is the only batter to have achieved more than 20 ODI run-chasing centuries. He has achieved this 28 times. Tendulkar and Rohit trail Kohli in this regard with 17 centuries to their name. Virat Kohli also has 43 half-centuries to his name batting second.
Kohli in a Successful Run Chase
On numerous occasions, Virat Kohli has demonstrated his masterclass in guiding India to victory from seemingly dire situations with his batting. He is the only player to have scored 6,000 or more runs when chasing down totals in ODIs (6,137 runs in 103 innings, averaging 90.25). In addition, he is the runaway leader in terms of the total number of ODIs in which he has registered centuries while chasing down totals, with no other player having accomplished it more than 15 times.
Exceptional Numbers: Home vs Away
Another distinction is that he is also the only player to have scored more than 2000 ODI runs while playing overseas matches (away from home) and successfully chased a target. He has made 10 centuries in this type of match.
Other Notable Records of Virat Kohli
Here are Kohli’s averages against all major teams (over 10 matches) when facing opposition in successful run-chases: Australia — 75.38, England — 85.14, New Zealand — 67, Sri Lanka — 95.84, and West Indies — 77.75.
Virat Kohli is the only player in ODI cricket history to score more than 5000 runs (5078) batting at the number three position in successful run-chases. Ricky Ponting follows in second place with 3852 runs.
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