Virat Kohli's contentious decision during India's Cricket World Cup fixture against Bangladesh left fans fuming on Twitter, now rebranded as X.

From being labeled Chokli, selfish, and shameless, Virat Kohli earned all sorts of acronyms after his century against Bangladesh ignited a massive controversy within the cricketing community.

 

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After Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bat first, India found themselves in trouble with their opponents dominating the proceedings at the start of the contest.

With the Bangladesh score reading 93/0 in just over 14 overs, India needed someone to give them a breakthrough, and it was provided to them by Kuldeep Yadav.

Then, the Indian spinners, particularly Ravindra Jadeja, dried up the runs for Bangladesh, resulting in four wickets in quick succession.

Two more wickets from Jasprit Bumrah during the final ten overs meant that Bangladesh could only manage 256/7 in their allocated 50 overs.

In reply, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave India an explosive start, with the former choosing to take the aerial route to punish the Bangladesh bowlers with boundaries and sixes.

Though Rohit Sharma couldn't complete his fifty, falling for 48 off 40 balls, he had given the Men in Blue the momentum they needed to put their foot on the accelerator to claim their fourth successive win in the World Cup.

After the India skipper departed, Shubman Gill completed his half-century before perishing in his bid to hit a six. Shubman Gill's wicket brought Shreyas Iyer to the crease. But he couldn't stay there for long, getting dismissed for 19.

The wickets of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer did not deter Virat Kohli from motoring along nicely to 80, which is where things began to get interesting on the field.

With Virat Kohli needing 20 to complete his hundred and India requiring the same amount of runs to win the match, the Delhi-born cricketer elevated his game to attain the milestone.

The contribution of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli's batting partner during this concluding stages of the clash, was equally important as he aided the latter in his pursuit of a century.

It all began in the 39th over. Virat Kohli, still in the 70s, smashed the Bangladesh bowler Hasan Mahmud for a six to move into the 80s.

The 40th over saw Virat Kohli hit a boundary and six to enter into the 90s, giving the crowd genuine hope that the master batter was on his way to another hundred in the 50-over format.

Eventually, the situation came down to India needing two runs to win when Virat Kohli was three runs away from his ton.

Virat Kohli could only touch the three-figure mark by smacking the ball in the stands, which he did comfortably, thus securing his team's triumph and a hundred for himself.

Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 103 off 97 deliveries, including six fours and four sixes, to power India to a seven-wicket win, their fourth in succession in the prestigious tournament.

During the process, Virat Kohli surpassed his idol Sachin Tendulkar to become the quickest to complete 26,000 runs in international cricket.

Virat Kohli reached the milestone in his 567th knock, while Sachin Tendulkar needed 600 essays to get to the mark.

More so, the hundred against Bangladesh took the former India captain ever closer to Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 centuries in ODIs.

Virat Kohli now has 48 tons in the 50-over format while the Little Master finished his illustrious career with 49 hundreds in ODIs.

With his scintillating batting display at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Virat Kohli improved his run tally to 13,342.

He is only behind four players in terms of runs in ODIs. Sachin Tendulkar (18,426), Kumar Sangakkara (14,234), Ricky Ponting (13,704), and Sanath Jayasuriya (13,430). But all of them took far more matches to score their runs than Virat Kohli has done.

Meanwhile, Umpire Richard Kettleborough became a butt of jokes on social media after he helped Virat Kohli in his hundred against Bangladesh in the World Cup game in Pune.

The incident came at the fag-end of India's run chase when Virat Kohli was batting at 97.

With India only two runs away from the win and Virat Kohli needing three to complete his century, Bangladesh spinner Nasum Ahmed attempted to prevent the former from reaching the landmark.

As he bowled the ball down the leg side, everyone thought that umpire Richard Kettleborough would call it a wide.  

If he had done so, it could have thrown a spanner in Virat Kohli's plans of making his 48th ODI ton.

Nonetheless, Richard Kettleborough had other ideas, as he did not declare it a wide delivery. As a result, Virat Kohli completed his hundred emphatically, clobbering the ball over the ropes a few minutes later.

Former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram underlined that Richard Kettleborough made a genuine mistake. But the legendary pacer also slammed the people for creating an issue out of nothing because such things happen in cricket.

“Looks like one of those genuine mistakes [by the umpire]. It was a wide ball for sure. [On the controversy] This is for people who have nothing to do, who live off this cr*p and then they can go nuts with it,” Wasim Akram said on A Sports.

On the other hand, Bangladesh stand-in captain Najmul Hossain Shanto dismissed allegations that Nasum Ahmed “intentionally” delivered a wide ball to deny Virat Kohli his hundred.

“No, no. There was no such plan. It was a normal plan. No bowler had the intention to bowl a wide ball. We tried to play a proper game. It was not intentional,” Najmul Hossain Shanto said.