Virat Kohli plays a shot during Day 2 of the second Test against South Africa (PTI photo)
Virat Kohli became second-fastest Indian batsman to score 26 Test centuries Friday on the second day of the second Test against South Africa being played in Pune. Kohli took 138 innings to reach the mark, just two more than Sachin Tendulkar. The Indian skipper is the fourth-fastest in the world to 26 Test centuries.
Don Bradman holds the record reaching the milestone in 69 innings followed by Steve Smith who did it in 121 innings.
It was the 30-year-old Kohli’s 19th Test century as captain. He has now equalled Ricky Ponting’s tally of centuries as captain. He is only behind Graeme Smith, who scored 25 Test centuries as the captain of South Africa.
The right-handed batsman also has the second-best conversion rates (minimum 15 hundreds). His conversion rate is 54.2 per cent and is second only to Bradman, who had a conversion rate of 69 per cent.
Kohli reached his century off 175 deliveries with a glorious straight drive off Vernon Philander’s bowling. He shared a record fourth-wicket partnership with Ajinkya Rahane. They surpassed Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly’s record of 145 runs for the fourth wicket in 1996-97.
#KingKohli ✌💪 pic.twitter.com/x5A2wNZwcM
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 11, 2019
This was 10th 100-plus partnership between Kohli and Rahane. India were 356 for 3 at lunch adding 83 runs to the score in the first session.
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