Kohli remained unbeaten on 59 off 44 balls as India put on 192/2 batting first against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup game in Dubai.
The half-century, his second in the format in 2022, helped Kohli go level with Rohit Sharma for most scores of fifty or more in T20Is. This was Kohli’s 31st fifty-plus score in the format. Rohit has 27 half-centuries and four hundred in T20Is.
No other batter has more than 30 such scores in T20Is with Babar Azam, David Warner, Martin Guptill, and Paul Stirling the others with more than 20 scores of fifty or more.
While Kohli has 31 such scores, he is yet to make a hundred in T20Is. All of the other batters with 15 or more fifty-plus scores in men’s T20Is have at least one hundred.
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Kohli wasn’t the only Indian player to notch up a milestone. Skipper Rohit Sharma crossed 3,500 runs in the format, becoming the first men’s player, and second after Suzie Bates to get to the milestone in T20Is.
Kohli’s half-century laid the platform for India against Hong Kong on Wednesday, but it was a stunning 26-ball 68* from Suryakumar that helped India make 122 runs in the last 10 overs and set Hong Kong a formidable total.
