NEW DELHI: The entire country will have its eyes on Bengaluru this evening, as India take on the Netherlands in their last league match of this ODI World Cup. While the larger context of the game remains a win and India's unbeaten run extending to 9-0, the cricket fans will hope that the Diwali day coincides with Virat Kohli's 50th ODI century.
The country's festive mood has been on cloud nine after the Indian team stormed into the semi-finals without conceding a single defeat in eight matches, which has also assured Rohit Sharma & Co a top-place finish in the league stage.
Irrespective of the result in the match against the Dutch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday, India will end up as No. 1 in the points table and take on fourth-placed New Zealand in the semis on November 15 in Mumbai.
But before attention moves to Mumbai, the spotlight will be on Bengaluru, which is also the home ground of IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore that is synonymous with its icon Virat Kohli.
On November 5, Kohli equalled Sachin Tendulkar's record of 49 ODI hundreds with a century against South Africa in India's penultimate league match, which also took Kohli's tally of runs in this edition of the World Cup to 543.
He is currently third on the list of run-getters in this tournament, behind New Zealand sensational Rachin Ravindra (565 runs) and South Africa's Quinton de Kock (591 runs).
Tendulkar, in fact, has already wished Kohli to get his 50th ODI century in this World Cup itself.
"It took me 365 days to go from 49 to 50 earlier this year. I hope you go from 49 to 50 and break my record in the next few days," Tendulkar, who celebrated his 50th birthday in April this year, had posted on 'X' after Kohli scored a hundred against South Africa.
Another record that is well within Kohli's reach on Sunday evening is becoming the third Indian after Tendulkar and Rohit to score 600 or more runs in a single edition of the ODI World Cup. Kohli needs 57 runs to reach that landmark.
Tendulkar scored 673 runs in the 2003 World Cup and Rohit aggregated 648 runs in the 2019 edition.
