'It's stuff of fantasies,' said Kohli after matching Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI hundreds

 He reached the landmark during India's World Cup match at Eden Gardens versus South Africa on his 35th birthday.

During India's global Cup match against South Africa in Kolkata, on his 35th birthday, Virat Kohli equaled Sachin Tendulkar's global record of 49 ODI hundreds.

"I cherish every chance I get to represent India in sports. After his record-tying innings, Kohli remarked, "To be able to do that on my birthday, in front of the whole crowd, is stuff of dreams, something that as a child you wish had happened." "I am very grateful to God that I have been blessed with these kinds of moments, so much love from the fans as well and just continue to help the team in any way possible."

Under an almost full Eden Gardens, Kohli struck history when he scored the record-tying hundred off 119 balls in the 49th over of India's innings by hitting Kagiso Rabada to cover for a single. Kohli reached his 49th century in just his 277th innings in his 289th match, whereas Tendulkar reached it in his 451st ODI innings. He led India to a 326 total, finishing undefeated on 101 off 121 balls.

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!!#INDvSA pic.twitter.com/PVe4iXfGFk

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) November 5, 2023

 After India lost Shubman Gill in the eleventh over, with the score at 93 for 2, Kohli started his innings in the sixth over. According to Kohli, "it was a tricky wicket to bat on." "With Rohit [Sharma] and Shubman, we got off to a great start. My job was to maintain that momentum when I came in, but as soon as the ten overs were up, the ball began to grip and the wicket began to slow down as the ball grew older.

"To be honest, as soon as we lost Shubman and Rohit within ten overs, my role was to bat deep and bat till the end because that's what I have done over the years and that's what the team communication was well; I bat and guys bat around me and then Shreyas started hitting a few." My roles are different from Shreyas's. We did not anticipate scoring 327 [326], but when you play deep and extend the game into the final few overs, you can score a few runs more than you initially anticipated."

He and Iyer pushed India's force along with a third-wicket stand of 134 off 158 balls. "We had a ton of training meetings before we went to the Asia Cup. I and Shreyas constantly batted together, in light of the fact that No. 3 and 4, against spinners. What's more, I addressed him, 'This is the association that needs to become the dominant focal point through the center overs'. So the two of us are quite happy with pivoting the negative mark against spinners. Anything that free balls he got, he set them aside, credit to him," Kohi said. "As I said, when you lose two wickets and don't have Hardik [Pandya] in your group, you want to bat profound and ensure that you get to a phase where the resistance feels like we need to limit them, as opposed to naturally suspecting we are one wicket away from 30 runs lesser than whatever we needed to pursue. He batted delightfully as per the circumstance and strike revolution was the key."

Kohli presently has two hundreds in the 2023 World Cup to go with four half-hundreds of years in eight association games up to this point. He is the second most elevated run-scorer in the competition behind South Africa's Quinton de Kock, his 543 runs coming at a normal of 108.60 and strike pace of 88.29. It is whenever he first has scored in excess of 500 runs in an ODI World Cup.

Kohli's hundred proceeds with a productive year for him in the ODI design. He has in excess of 1000 runs with five centuries in 2023, at a normal of 72.18 and strike pace of 99.82. It is the eighth time he has scored in excess of 1000 ODI runs in a year, outperforming Tendulkar's record of seven.

With seven dominates in seven matches, India were the main group to meet all requirements for the World Cup semi-finals, in front of this top-of-the-table conflict with South Africa.