India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli surpasses Sachin Tendulkar’s record during first Test

Virat Kohli continued his record-breaking form this year in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Team India went down in the match but it was a memorable outing for Kohli, in terms of individual milestones. Kohli surpassed Sachin Tendulkar on another elite list as he became the leading run-scorer for India in South Africa across all three formats.

Kohli, who got out for 38 in the first innings, was in his zone on day three as he was the lone warrior for the visitors. Despite early setbacks and facing a deficit of 163 runs from the first innings, Kohli stood firm while other top-order batters kept returning to the pavilion. With Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer departing early, India had their backs against the wall and that is when Kohli rose to the occasion and exhibited his class.

Kohli produced a counter-attacking display and even took the toll of loose deliveries and capitalised after he was dropped by substitute fielder Wiaan Mulder.

Stats | Virat Kohli first to cross 2000 runs in seven different years

During this innings, Kohli breezed past Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 1724 runs across all formats for India in the Rainbow Nation. Kohli scored those runs at a remarkable average of more than 50 on the South African soil across all formats.

MOST RUNS FOR INDIA IN SOUTH AFRICA (ALL FORMATS)

Virat Kohli – 1750* runs in 29 matches – 5 hundreds

Sachin Tendulkar – 1724 runs in 38 matches – 6 hundreds

Rahul Dravid – 1136 runs in 22 matches – 1 hundred

Sourav Ganguly – 897 runs in 17 matches – 1 hundred

MS Dhoni – 872 runs in 32 matches – 0 hundred

As far as the match is concerned, a batting collapse on day three resulted in India being bowled out for 131 in just 34.1 overs. This saw the Proteas walk away with a comprehensive win by an innings and 32 runs, giving them a 1-0 lead in the two-match Test series.

This performance by India was in stark contrast to how South Africa performed with the bat. Dean Elgar starred with the bat with an impressive 185 in the first innings. Marco Jansen also remained unbeaten at 84 as the Proteas piled up 408 runs.