ODI World Cup 2023: Virat Kohli poses with ground staff at Eden Gardens after India's clinical win over South Africa

Star India batter Virat Kohli was awarded Player of the Match for his magnificent hundred during Match 37 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 against South Africa in Kolkata. Kohli played a brilliant innings of 101* (121) as he helped India post a massive score of 326/5 in their allotted 50 overs and win the match by 243 runs.

After the game, Kohli, who was also celebrating his 35^th birthday, posed with the ground staff at the Eden Gardens. The star batter looked in tremendous touch during the game as he also equalled Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most hundreds in ODIs (49). Kohli celebrated the historic achievement by spending some time with the ground staff who were admired him for his kind act.

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Notably, Kohli also became the second-highest run scorer in the tournament so far with 543 runs to his name from eight innings at an average of 108.60 with two hundreds and four fifties to his name. He also climbed to the third spot on the list of the leading run scorers in ODI World Cup history with 1573 runs to his name only behind Ricky Ponting (1743 runs) and Sachin Tendulkar (2278 runs).

Also Check: ODI World Cup 2023 Most Runs

Coming back to the match, apart from Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (77 off 87) also scored a half-century as the duo put on a massive 134-run stand for the third wicket Suryakumar Yadav (22 off 14) and Ravindra Jadeja (29* off 15) gave the finishing touch to the innings as India finished on 326/5 in 50 overs.

Ravindra Jadeja picked a five-wicket haul in the second innings

Later in the second innings, South Africa didn’t get off to a great start as they lost their in-form opener Quinton de Kock (5 off 10) in the second over itself. Ravindra Jadeja cleaned up Temba Bavuma in the ninth over to leave South Africa on 22/2 after 8.3 overs.

Mohammed Shami also continued his brilliant form by taking the big scalps of Aiden Markram (9 off 6) and Heinrich Klaasen (1 off 11) to leave South Africa reeling at 40/4 after 12.5 overs. From there on there was no recovery for the Proteas as they were bundled out for 83 in 27.1 overs and lost the match by 243 runs. Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers for India who picked up 5/33 in nine overs.