Kohli and battling displays of batting

How far does one have to go to be recognised as the greatest World Cup batter?

- Somshuvra Laha

When Sachin Tendulkar got to 523 runs in 1996, it was hailed as a record for the ages. Till Tendulkar topped it again in 2003, ending with 673 runs. Stringing five hundreds, Rohit Sharma was in imperious touch in 2019 but fell 25 runs short of that record. This World Cup, however, Kohli not only went past Sharma and Tendulkar but also quietly crossed the 700-run mark to end with 765 runs at an average of 95.62, the highest ever for any batter to aggregate 600 runs in a World Cup; which, by the way, is a small club of six batters.

That is still probably not the talking point of Kohli the accumulator, the chaser, the sustainer at this World Cup. In the twilight of his career, Kohli still manages to surprise with his consistency and sense of occasion. A hundred on his birthday? Check. A hundred to go past Tendulkar's all-time record of 49 ODI hundreds, with the great man looking on from the stands at the ground he grew up and later owned? Check.

Once you are done being the fanboy over the headlining acts, here's some more context. The first hundred came on possibly the trickiest pitch to bat on, where India had given themselves the mandate of out-batting South Africa, the most powerful batting line-up of the World Cup. No six, 10 boundaries, and with a strike rate much less than his career aggregate, Kohli displayed clarity of the rarest order. "My role was to bat deep and till the end after the openers fell because that's what I've done, that was the communication as well-to have guys bat around me," Kohli said later.