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India vs England: Virat Kohli goes past Graeme Smith in list of most ODI runs by a captain

Written by Vipin Darwade

India captain Virat Kohli on Friday added another feather to his already-illustrious cap as he surpassed Graeme Smith to become the fifth-highest run-scorer as a captain in the 50-overs format during the ongoing second ODI against England in Pune.

Virat Kohli overtook Graeme Smith on the list of batsmen with most runs as captain in ODI cricket when he went past the former South Africa skipper’s tally of 5,416 runs. Kohli was playing his 94th ODI match as captain of India while Smith had got to the tally in 150 matches. Kohli reached the milestone in the 24th over of the second ODI at Pune.

Before the 2nd ODI, Kohli was only 41 runs away from going past former South Africa opener Graeme Smith in the list of most ODI runs by a captain. The No.1 in the list is former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, who has amassed 8497 runs in his 234 ODIs as captain. The Australia legend is followed by former India captain MS Dhoni who is at No.2 with 6641 runs in 200 ODIs as a skipper.

However, Kohli has the best average and strike rate combination in that elite list. Kohli is the only one in the elite list to average more than 70 in ODI cricket as captain. His strike of 98.55 is also better than most.

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Vipin Darwade