India's star cricketer Virat Kohli on Sunday former India captain surpassed Mohammad Azharuddin's tally of 156 catches in the ICC Men's Champions Trophy 2025 Group A match against Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium.
Kohli has till now taken 157 catches in ODIs, and is behind Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene (218) and Australia's Ricky Ponting (160).
The other Indians on the list are Mohammad Azharuddin (156), Sachin Tendulkar (140), Rahul Dravid (124), and Suresh Raina (102).
With India defeating Pakistan by 6 wickets and Kohli becoming the ‘Player of the Match’, he stated that he kept telling himself that he will give his 100 percent.
He said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo, "It feels to be good to bat in that manner in an important game, where a spot for semis was there to be taken, after Rohit fell. My job was clear - to control the middle overs, not take risks against spinners and take on pacers. I was happy with the template, it's how I play in ODIs. I have a decent understanding of my game. It's about keeping the outside noise away, take care of my energy levels and thoughts. It's easy for me to get pulled into expectations and frenzy around games like these."
"I kept telling myself I'll give my 100% while fielding. It's why I take pride in it. When you put your head down and go about your work, things work out. Clarity is important, when there is pace on the ball you have to get scoring. Shubman and Shreyas have been excellent. Everyone's got a decent knock in these conditions, that'll augur well in the coming matches. At 36, a week off is very good. It takes a lot out of me to put in that much effort," he concluded.
On Sunday, while playing against Pakistan in the Group A match of the ICC CT 2025, Kohli became the third cricketer and the quickest in the planet to complete 14000 runs.
Virat Kohli's 14000 runs in ODIs came in 287 innings as compared to Sachin Tendulkar (350) and Kumar Sangakkara (378). Earlier, Virat Kohli was the fastest to reach 8000, 9000, 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 and 13,000 runs in the 50-over format.
Earlier, Virat Kohli went past former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin for most catches by an Indian in ODIs. Virat Kohli took the catch of Naseem Shah to record his 157th catch in 50-over cricket. Virat Kohli also broke Ricky Ponting’s record of 27,483 runs to become third leading run scorer in international cricket.
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