Kolkata: Soon after Virat Kohli surpassed Sachin Tendulkar by being the first to have scored 50 ODI centuries, former India captain and Tendulkar's compatriot Sourav Ganguly was effusive in his praise for Kohli.
The modern-day great surpassed his idol Sachin's milestone of 49 centuries in ODI cricket during India's ICC World Cup 2023 semi-final against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday. Kohli's 117 runs off 113 deliveries led to a mountain of runs in the first semi-final of the World Cup.
"It's outstanding. Fifty Hundred. It's phenomenal. It will be difficult for others to break this record. Still, Kohli has not left the game. This should be kept in mind," Ganguly told the reporters here on Wednesday.
Virat Kohli debuted for India 15 moons ago. On that day, the members of the Indian team played a prank on the newcomer by forcing him to bow down in front of Tendulkar. The master Blaster himself mentioned this during the innings break on Wednesday.
"That day they all asked Virat Kohli to bow to Sachin. They said 'Keep touching his feet, your cricket life will flourish.' Today that boy bettered my ODI feat. Really unbelievable," Tendulkar said.
Kohli also returned the respect by hailing Tendulkar soon after reaching 100 for the 50th time in the One-Day Internationals. On India's performance, Ganguly said, “India are playing well. Shreyas (Iyer) also scored a century. Winning the semi-final and reaching the final, India will take a step closer to the World title... One step at a time."
The semi-final is being played on the 22-yard strip where India played against Sri Lanka in the league fixture. Asked about the pitch debate at Wankhede, Ganguly abstained from commenting.
“I don't know about it. So I should not comment. But the pitch is good enough. Both teams are playing on the same pitch,” the former Bengal southpaw said.
The former BCCI president also praised India's dominating performance. “Great talented team. Everyone is playing well. Rohit (Sharma), Virat (Kohli), (Shubman) Gill, and Shreyas (Iyer) are all playing brilliantly. The bowlers, batters, spinners are all playing well," added Ganguly.
Will Rohit Sharma get the trophy on November 19? Ganguly was non-committal. "I don't know. let's see." Is this team better than the 2003 team? "I am not willing to compare," he signed off.
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