The stage was set, the moment was picture perfect…and there goes Virat Kohli punching Kagiso Rabada to cover for a single to bring up his record-equalling 49th ODI hundred
in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Eden Gardens. With that milestone, the childhood dream was fulfilled for birthday boy Kohli, who turned 35 on Sunday and celebrated his day by steering table toppers India to a convincing 243-run win over South Africa, and extend India’s unbeaten run to eight at the ongoing ICC World Cup.

“Every opportunity to play for India is a big one for me. To be able to do that on my birthday, in front of the whole crowd, it’s stuff of dreams, something that as a child you wish had happened,” Kohli said after slamming a 121-ball unbeaten 101 to steer the team to a massive 326/5 against South Africa after electing to bat.

“I am very grateful to God that I have been blessed with these kinds of moments, so much love from the fans as well and just continue to help the team in any way possible,” he added.

With that landmark hundred coming off 119 balls, Kohli joined batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who scored his 49th century in his 451st ODI innings, Kohli got there in just his 277th innings in his 289th match.

Kohli began his innings in the sixth over after skipper Rohit Sharma (40 off 24 balls; 4×6, 6×2) provided India a flourishing start in the company of Shubman Gill (23 off 24), that saw India racing to 91 in the mandatory power play, before the wickets of the openers slowed things down and allowed South Africa to crawl back by leaking mere 33 runs from the next 10 overs.

“It was a tricky wicket to bat on. We got a great start through Rohit (Sharma) and Shubman, and then when I got in, my job was to keep that momentum going, but as soon as the ten overs got over, the ball started gripping and the wicket started slowing down as the ball got older,” explained Kohli.

Kohli then joined hands with Shreyas Iyer (77 off 87 balls) to keep India’s momentum going with a third-wicket stand of 134 off 158 balls, that helped India roar back into the match.

“Our roles are different – me and Shreyas, we wanted to string in a partnership and to be honest, as soon as we lost Shubman and Rohit within 10 overs, my role was to bat deep and bat till the end because that’s what I have done over the years and that’s what the communication from the team was well; I bat and guys bat around me and then Shreyas started hitting a few,” Kohli said.

And by the time, the duo of Kohli and Iyer were separated, with the latter falling to Lungi Ngidi in the 37th over, Suryakumar Yadav (22 off 14) and Ravindra Jadeja (29 off 15) slammed brisk cameos to release the pressure of hitting from Kohli, and at the same time not let the momentum swing the Proteas’ way to eventually end on 326.

In reply, Ravindra Jadeja (5/33) reduced the top-of-the-table clash to a mere one-sided affair in favour of the hosts, by triggering a collapse that the South Africans never managed to recover from and found themselves in all sorts of trouble even if a few batters were in a mood to resist on a tricky wicket.

After Mohammed Siraj delivered the opening punch by crashing through the defences of Quinton de Kock (5), Jadeja, brought as early as the ninth over of the mandatory power play, struck with the wicket of skipper Temba Bavuma for a 19-ball 11.

In the form of his life, star pacer Mohammed Shami joined the party soon to pluck two more wickets — Aiden Markram (9) and Rassie van der Dussen (13) but it was Jadeja, who rocked South Africa’s ship with quick wickets of Heinrich Klaasen (1), David Miller (11) and Keshav Maharaj (7) to return with a five-wicket haul. His spin twin Kuldeep Yadav completed the formalities with a couple of wickets to propel India to a commanding 243 runs.