Hashim Amla breaks Virat Kohli's record

Sports Desk: South African batsman Hashim Amla has overtaken Virat Kohli as the fatest to reach 7,000 ODI runs in the course of the third and final ODI against England at Lord's.

Incidentally, Kohli had eclipsed another Proteas batsman, AB de Villiers, when he made the record his own during a match against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Club in January, 2016.

Amla took only 151 innings to get to the landmark while Kohli had taken 161 innings. Before him, de Villiers had reached the coveted 7,000-run mark in 166 innings while former India skipper, Sourav Ganguly, had held the record for several years, having reached there in 174 innings. West Indian legend Brian Lara got there in only 183 innings.

Amla was in fine form in the recently concluded Indian Premier League, smashing two hundreds for Kings XI Punjab, who failed to reach the playoffs despite his brilliance.

The 34-year-old had started 2017 in great style, smashing a classy 154 against Sri Lanka in Centurion in February. He has 24 hundreds from 153 ODIs and is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the limited-overs formats despite lacking the aggressive style several of his peers boast of.

Kohli, six years Amla's junior, looks destined to finish with most ODI records to his name, though. He has 27 hundreds in 179 ODIs and has so far piled up 7755 at a staggering average of 53.11.

Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/May 29, 2017/Porag/Nasim