Fans in attendance at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam and those watching from home will have their eyes glued to their screens as Virat Kohli takes center stage in the 3rd ODI against South Africa. The ODI champion will be back again, with another case of India needing him to deliver with the three-match series still hanging in the balance. But apart from that, pundits and fans the world over will be talking about whether the ‘King’ can make a hat-trick of centuries in ODIs.
Kohli has been in good form in recent ODI games. Any talk of him being too old or not having the same hunger was put to bed with that knock in Sydney. This was followed by some brilliant displays in Ranchi and Raipur, but some solid performances by the Proteas ensured that the series went to the final game.
With the streak hanging in the balance, fans can’t get enough of Kohli’s brilliance and in Vizag they expect nothing less than a hundred.
FIRST TO HATTRICK CENTURY IN ODI
The first man to score a hat-trick of centuries in ODIs was Pakistan’s Zaheer Abbas, who scored 118, 105 and 103 in the three home matches he faced against India in 1982-83. Since then, a total of 13 players have scored three centuries back-to-back in the format as well.
But the longest run of hundreds in ODIs belongs to Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara and his dream run in the 2015 ODI World Cup where he slammed four consecutive centuries against Bangladesh, England, Australia and Scotland.
Quinton de Kock’s current player also holds the record for scoring three consecutive centuries against India in the home series for South Africa in 2013.
WHERE IS INDIA ON THIS LIST?
Indian batsmen have also achieved this feat and it is funny that it is Virat Kohli himself who became the first Indian batsman to achieve the milestone. Achieved performance in 2018 home series against West Indieswhere he ran amok with scores of 140, 157 and 107 in Guwahati, Visakhapatnam and Pune respectively.
Rohit Sharma also found himself in this elite list of players as he went on a rampage in the ODI World Cup 2019 scoring hundreds against England, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
But with a century on the cards, India will want their top scorer to get another three-figure score to avoid another series loss to the Proteas.
Here’s a fun fact: India have an 83% win rate when Virat Kohli scores a century.
The question now remains whether India can get over the line and show their dominance at home or it will be another humiliating series defeat at home.
– The end
Issued by:
Amar Panicker
Published on:
December 5, 2025
