India talisman Virat Kohli became a butt of jokes after his second successive failure against New Zealand on Saturday. It was the second match in a row Virat Kohli failed to get going following his record-breaking performance in the series against Sri Lanka earlier this month. In the series against New Zealand, Virat Kohli has only succeeded in putting up scores of 8 and 11 so far, losing his wicket to Mitchell Santner both times.
Mitchell Santner, the left-arm New Zealand spinner has been able to trouble Virat Kohli with his dip, spin, and bounce with the latter making errors in judgment both in Hyderabad and Raipur.
While in the first match in Telangana, Virat Kohli played inside the line, getting bowled for 8, on Saturday, he was stumped by wicketkeeper Tom Latham after the premier India batter took a long stride to cover the spin and came out of the crease.
Immediately after Virat Kohli's dismissal by Mitchell Santner, social media users took to Twitter to mock him for his string of low scores against New Zealand.
Again Santner & his unplayable deliveries.
next dead rubber? Century loading?Dear @BCCI,
please arrange series with Sri Lanka, Afghanistan & Bangladesh that too on indian flat tracks, so my kimg can complete 100 centuries 🥰👑 pic.twitter.com/dmsdRWerKI— شایان 🇵🇰 (@CricFreakShayan) January 21, 2023
Boundaries against Mitchell Santner in Odis
Kohli (Overall 6)
Babar Azam (5 in last series )
Levels pic.twitter.com/rZrZvFcARi
— PCT ❤️️ (@Pak_BA56) January 21, 2023
1st Match got out on Backfoot for a ball that should be played on Frontfoot.
2nd Match got out on Frontfoot for a ball that should be played on Backfoot.I don't know how a player like Kohli is having problem playing spin, he does need to spend sometime on the crease though.
— Mayank (@16kilobytes) January 21, 2023
Don't worry, he's waiting for Bangladesh, afghanistan and srilanka, king will be back soon🔥he doesn't score against tinpot teams like newzealand, Australia and England.
— Priyansh Mishra (@mishraaoxymoron) January 21, 2023
Come on man! The ball makes the tiniest bit of movement and he is gone. He is just proving himself to be a flat wicket bully.
— Chernobog (@Chernobog_1) January 21, 2023
Hey kid @imVkohli that’s how you play Santner pic.twitter.com/rizfKesOEu https://t.co/BbcUmdSyWA
— Haris (@damnharris) January 21, 2023
Virat Kohli's twin failures against New Zealand came after he broke a slew of world records during his masterful unbeaten 166-run-knock off 110 deliveries against Sri Lanka last weekend.
Virat Kohli now has 20 Player of the Series awards to his name in international cricket, the same as Sachin Tendulkar. If we bifurcate their numbers further, Virat Kohli has claimed 3 Man of the Series trophies in Tests, 10 in ODIs, and 7 in T20Is. Talking about the Little Master’s figures, he grabbed 5 in red-ball cricket while the other 15 came in the 50-over format. He won none in T20Is.
With his 166 not out against the islanders, Virat Kohli now has the most unbeaten 150+ scores (5) in the history of ODIs.
The ton was his 21st at home in the second-longest format of the sport, taking him clear of Sachin Tendulkar’s previous tally of 20.
During his sensational innings, Virat Kohli also overtook Sri Lanka legend Mahela Jayawardene to occupy the fifth spot among the highest run-getters in ODIs.
With 12,754 runs, Virat Kohli is now only behind Sachin Tendulkar (18,426), Kumar Sangakkara (14,234), Ricky Ponting (13,704), and Sanath Jayasuriya (13,430).
Virat Kohli also became the first non-opener to have 5 scores of more than 150+ in ODIs.
Moreover, Virat Kohli is the quickest to amass 46 centuries in ODI cricket – a milestone he achieved in just 259 innings. On the other hand, the previous record holder Sachin Tendulkar needed 431 innings to get there.
This was his 10th century against Sri Lanka, making him the first man to score that many tons against a single team in ODIs. Previously, Virat Kohli had made nine centuries each against Sri Lanka and West Indies, while Sachin Tendulkar had scored the same number of tons against Australia.
After the Sri Lanka series, the India batter admitted that he had not batted in this kind of rhythm for a while, after experiencing a prolonged slump in form between the start of 2020 to August 2022. He emphasized that he was pleased to be doing it all in a year when the 50-World Cup is scheduled to be held in India in October-December.
“It has been a great start, been a while since I started the year like this with a hundred and then getting two hundreds in a series and also becoming man of the series,” Virat Kohli told his teammate Shubman Gill in a video shared by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
“I’m just happy that in the World Cup year I’m able to start like this and I know I can be consistent, so when I start like this and start feeling confident, then things usually go well. So, I’m just happy from the team’s point of view that I was able to start like this and the team can really gel well as a batting unit,” Virat Kohli added.
With 46 ODI centuries to his name, Virat Kohli is 3 behind Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 and needs 4 to overhaul him. Many ex-cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar, reckon that the Delhi-born player will soon go past Sachin's tally in the 50-over format.
But Sanjay Manjrekar believes that more than Sachin Tendulkar's ODI record, the latter's Test record will be a tough nut to crack for Virat Kohli.
“It's Sachin's Test hundreds that are going to be a big mountain for Kohli to climb. He (Kohli) is an all-time great in this format (ODI); not saying that he is not a Test match great. Tendulkar's real greatness was 51 Test hundreds. That's the one which is going to be a real pursue for him and I hope he carries that aspiration and gets there,” Sanjay Manjrekar told Star Sports.
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