World Cup 2023: 'I hope you...', Sachin Tendulkar reacts after Virat Kohli equals his ODI centuries record

Legendary Indian cricketer SachinTendulkarcongratulated Virat Kohli after the latter equalled his record for the most ODI centuries. Tendulkar took to his social media handles to post a congratulatory message for Kohli and urged him to eclipse the record quickly.

Kohli reached his 49th ODI century in front of a boisterous 70,000 Eden Gardens crowd against South Africa in the penultimate league match at the ongoing World Cup.

"Well played Virat. It took me 365 days to go from 49 to 50 earlier this year," posted Tendulkar on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"I hope you go from 49 to 50 and break my record in the next few days. Congratulations!!" he added.

While Tendulkar reached the milestone in 452 innings, Kohli obliterated it by almost half, achieving it in 277 innings.

Notably, over adecade ago, it was Tendulkar who predicted that if there was anyone who could break his records, it would either be Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma.

During a felicitation ceremony hosted by industrialist Mukesh Ambani in 2012, Tendulkar was quizzed if anyone wouldconquer his 100 international tons record.

"I can see those youngsters. Virat and Rohit are the ones. As long as an Indian breaks it, I don't mind," said Tendulkar at the time.

While Kohli is far from achieving the 100 tons record, he is on the precipice of eclipsing Tendulkar in the ODI format and the prophecy made by the Master Blaster remains true. Kohli is currently on 79 international centuries and if he continues for another couple of years, might be able to achieve the feat as well.

Riding on Kohli's grafted century, India posted a challenging target of 327 on a pitch that is slightly two-paced, making stroke-making extremely difficult for the batters.

As of the last update, India had got rid of opener Quinton de Kock as Mohammed Siraj got him to chop one back to the stumps.

Players with most ODI hundreds:

Virat Kohli - 49 centuries, 277 innings

Sachin Tendulkar - 49 centuries, 452 innings

Rohit Sharma - 31 centuries, 259 innings

Ricky Ponting - 30 centuries, 365 innings

Sanath Jayasuriya - 28 centuries, 433 innings

(With inputs from agencies)