Virat Kohli smashes Vijay Hazare Trophy hundred after 15 years; closes in on Sachin Tendulkar with 58th List A century

Virat Kohli took just 83 balls to score his first hundred in the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Wednesday. His performance put Delhi in the driver's seat against Andhra Pradesh at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence ground in Bengaluru.

Delhi was chasing a target of 299 runs. After opener Arpit Rana fell for a duck, Kohli and Priyansh Arya rebuilt the innings. The duo shared a 113-run partnership for the second wicket. Kohli played shots across the entire ground to reach his 58th List A hundred. This was his fifth century for Delhi. His remaining tons have all come in international cricket.

With this century, Kohli is closing in on Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most List A hundreds. Tendulkar finished his career with 60. During this innings, Kohli also passed the 1,000-run mark for Delhi in one-day cricket.

Virat Kohli's sublime form

Kohli has been in excellent touch since returning to action in Australia. He started that tour with two ducks. However, the right-hander has not looked back since. He returned to form with an unbeaten 76 in the third ODI against Australia. He then smashed two hundreds in a row against South Africa at home.

Kohli has now scored three centuries in his last four innings. He nearly had three straight tons against the Proteas, but the target was too small to reach the milestone.

Virat Kohli's Vijay Hazare Trophy hundreds

When was the last time Kohli played in VHT?

The last time Kohli played a match in the Vijay Hazare Trophy was in 2010, against Services on 18 February 2010, at the Tata Energy Research Institute Oval ground in Gurgaon. He was Delhi's captain at that time.

In that game, Kohli managed just 16 runs after coming to bat at no.5. Interestingly, current BCCI president Mithun Manhas had scored a hundred, thus powering Delhi to a 13-run win.

Kohli goes past Sachin Tendulkar

Kohli was finally dismissed for 131 off 101 balls, studded with 14 fours and three sixes. During his innings, Kohli went past Tendulkar to become the fastest to reach 16000 List A runs. While Tendulkar took 391 innings to achieve the milestone, Kohli did it in his 330th innings.

Earlier this month, Kohli went past Tendulkar for most hundreds in ODIs after his first century in the series against South Africa, which took him to his 52nd ton. Tendulkar had finished with 51 hundreds in ODIs.