Virat Kohli surpassed Mohammad Azharuddin to carry the record for essentially the most catches as a fielder for India in ODIs with 158 catches through the Champions Trophy 2025 Group A clash against Pakistan on the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. Kohli, 36, took the catch of Naseem Shah, off Kuldeep Yadav’s delivery within the forty seventh over to achieve the record. He also went on to take the catch of Khushdil Shah in the ultimate over to raised his tally.
Mohammad Azharuddin (156), Sachin Tendulkar (140), Rahul Dravid (124), and Suresh Raina (102) are the others on the elite list.
Kohli, who can be the third-highest scorer within the format behind Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara, is just 15 runs away from reaching the elusive 14,000 ODI run milestone.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Pakistan’s batters got off to a superb start but struggled to take care of a solid run rate, with a 104-run stand between Saud Shakeel (62) and Mohammad Rizwan (46) being the one distinguished feature of their innings, though it got here at a snail’s pace. From 151-2, Pakistan looked prime to transcend 250, but India triggered a batting meltdown to bowl them out for 241.
Alongside Virat, spinner Kuldeep also etched his name within the record books by becoming the fifth Indian spinner to say 300 international wickets. The 30-year-old from Kanpur joined the ranks of legendary spinners Anil Kumble, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, and Ravindra Jadeja.
Kuldeep reached the milestone after dismissing Salman Ali Agha for his three hundredth wicket within the forty third over.
India can be hoping to finish the 242 run chase that stands in between them and a semi-final spot within the tournament. The Rohit Sharma led side had successfully chased a goal of 229, on the identical venue, of their opening game against Bangladesh but can have to survive the opening spell of lethal left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi and young pacer Naseem Shah alongside dangerous leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed.
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