Virat Kohli breaks century drought with 42nd century in 2nd ODI vs West Indies

March 9, 2019. India vs Australia at Ranchi. That was the last time Virat Kohli had scored a century in ODIs. In the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, Kohli had scored five consecutive fifties but each time, the supporters were flummoxed that Kohli could not convert a fifty into a century. Five months later, Kohli finally broke the century jinx when he blasted his 42nd century and eighth against the West Indies during the Queens Park Oval in Port of Spain, Trinidad on Sunday. The ODI has been a record-breaking one for Virat Kohli as he smashed some major landmarks during the course of his knock.

Kohli became the first and only player to go past 2000 runs in ODIs against the West Indies. Before this, Pakistan's Javed Miandad held the record for the most runs against the West Indies and with this century, Kohli has broken the 26-year record set by Pakistan's master batsman of most runs against the West Indies. His tally of eight hundreds against the Caribbean side is the most by any player and it is his joint-most against one nation, having smashed eight centuries against Sri Lanka followed by Australia with the same number.

The right-hand skipper also overtook Sourav Ganguly's record for number of runs in ODIs, overtaking Ganguly's tally of 11363 runs and becoming the eighth-highest run-getter in ODIs overall. Kohli also became a four-hitting machine against the West Indies, becoming the first and only batsman to hit over 200 fours against the West Indies. Kohli played his first ODI against West Indies in the 2009 Champions Trophy in Johannesburg in which he scored an unbeaten 79. His first hundred against the West Indies came in 2011 in Visakhapatnam. Kohli's domination against the West Indies cane be gauged from the fact that he struck four back-to-back centuries against them between July 2017 and October 2018.

This was the 20th century as an ODI skipper while he has scored 19 under the leadership of MS Dhoni. As a skipper, he now has the most centuries against one side with six against the West Indies, breaking the previous record of five held by Ricky Ponting of Australia against New Zealand. 

India would be looking to win this match and continue their wonderful tour of the West Indies which began on a bang with a 3-0 cleansweep of the West Indies in the Twenty20 Internationals. 

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HIGHLIGHTS

• Virat Kohli scored his 42nd century in ODIs.
• Virat Kohli last scored a century in the Ranchi ODI against Australia.
• Virat Kohli is the first batsman to hit 2000 runs against West Indies in ODIs.