After two successive ducks, India’s batting talisman Virat Kohli roared back to form with a sublime unbeaten 74, overtaking Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara to become the second-highest run-getter in One Day Internationals (ODIs).

Kohli also surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to become the highest run-scorer across all limited-overs international formats, underlining his enduring brilliance and consistency.

Teaming up with skipper Rohit Sharma, the duo stitched a commanding 168-run unbeaten partnership, guiding India to a nine-wicket win over Australia in the final ODI at Sydney and helping the visitors avoid a whitewash.

Kohli’s innings of 74 not out off 81 deliveries featured seven boundaries, his knock combining classical timing with fluent strike rotation. With this, the right-hander now has 14,250 runs in 305 ODIs, surpassing Sangakkara’s tally of 14,234 runs in 404 matches.

The only batter ahead of Kohli now is Tendulkar, who remains the all-time highest ODI run-getter with 18,426 runs in 463 matches.

Also read: Rohit, Virat power India to 9-wicket win in Sydney

By accumulating 4,188 runs in T20Is, Kohli has also overtaken Tendulkar as the highest run-getter across all limited-overs internationals, with a combined total of 18,438 runs, edging past Tendulkar’s 18,436.

This knock also marked Kohli’s 70th fifty-plus score in run chases, moving him ahead of Tendulkar (69). Against Australia, Kohli has now amassed 2,525 runs in 53 ODIs at an impressive average of 53.72, with eight centuries and 16 half-centuries.

In 2025, Kohli has scored 349 runs in 10 ODIs at an average of 43.62, including one century and three fifties.

Earlier, Australia were bowled out for 236 in 46.4 overs, after a promising start from skipper Mitchell Marsh (41) and Travis Head (29). Contributions from Matt Renshaw (56) and Alex Carey (24) were undone by a late collapse, triggered by Harshit Rana’s 4/39.

In response, India began steadily before Rohit Sharma (121)* and Kohli took charge. Rohit’s fluent hundred earned him both the ‘Player of the Match’ and ‘Player of the Series’ awards for scoring 202 runs across the three matches.