Even though India lost the first Test match against South Africa, Virat Kohli was still able to write history by having one of his best years ever in international cricket.
Despite India’s breaking down defeat of one wicket and thirty-two runs in the opening Test, Virat Kohli managed to set yet another batting record. No, he didn’t receive a perfect score. In the second innings, he made a strong 76 off 82 balls, which included 12 fours and 1 six, to score a fifty. Together with 38 in the opening innings, he achieved a feat that had never been accomplished in the 146-year history of cricket: setting a world record.
In 2023, Virat Kohli runs in the Centurion Test made him go above 2000 runs in all formats. Kohli is the first batter in history to reach 2000 international runs in a calendar year for the seventh time. Kohli amassed 2048 runs by the end of 2023 from 35 games in all formats. Shubman Gill, who finished with 2154 runs in 48 matches, is the batter with the most runs in 2023. Thus far in 2023, Daryl Mitchell has amassed 1970 runs in 49 games.
Coming back to Kohli, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the upcoming group of batters to match his accomplishments. In 2012 (2186 runs), 2014 (2286 runs), 2016 (2595 runs), 2017 (2818 runs), 2018 (2735 runs), and 2019 (2455 runs), he had previously accomplished the achievement of scoring 2000 or more runs in a calendar year. Since the first official match of international cricket in 1877, no other player has accomplished the same feat.
The bowlers’ and batters’ together inability to perform well in the first Test did not help India. South Africa proved to be too strong for the visitors, even without Lungu Ngidi and Temba Bavuma (the captain of South Africa, who missed the majority of the Test owing to an injury he sustained during the match). South Africa, captained by Dean Elgar, who is playing his final Test series, scored 408 runs in the first innings following India’s 245 bowling out. If KL Rahul hadn’t played outstandingly in the opening innings, the defeat margin would have been greatly higher. With his courageous 101, India scored 245 runs
However, nobody came up in the second innings except for Kohli, and it was clear that the game was lost when Kagiso Rabada and company removed the top order for essentially no runs. When the 2nd Test begins on January 3, India hopes they can make an outstanding comeback. To do this, they will need to pull up their socks.
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