The IPL Play of the Day goes to Virat Kohli, for scoring his first ever T20 ton, on Sachin Tendulkar’s birthday.

Very few people will argue with you if you were to say that Virat Kohli is the best batsman in the world across all the formats. He’s been batting superbly with the other contender for that honour, AB de Villiers, throughout the tournament so far. But against the Gujarat Lions on Sunday, Kohli finally achieved what De Villiers, and many others, have achieved before, and that is a T20 century.

The milestone had eluded him throughout his career, astonishing if you consider his stats in the format. His international average is just shy of 60 and he is the No 1 ranked player in the world. It seems the stars aligned, as he did it on Tendulkar’s 43rd birthday.

On Kohli’s Instagram page, the Royal Challengers Bangalore captain honoured the little master. ‘Happy birthday to the person who gave me the vision to be a cricketer. Who inspired me like millions across the nation and the world to win.’ If Kohli keeps playing the way he does, at this rate future cricketers will be honouring just like he did for his idol.

Picture: BCCI