What makes the feat more impressive is the fact that he was the stand in captain in the game after regular captain MS Dhoni was ruled out after suffering a hamstring strain in the Caribbean.
Many have succumbed to the pressure but Kohli proved he is cut from different cloth. Kohli’s 115 (108b, 13x4, 1x6) in the first ODI, which helped India chase down Zimbabwe’s 228 with 31 balls to spare and six wickets remaining, showed how far he has come in his bright career.To put matters in perspective, here are the people who have held the record earlier. While Saeed Anwar, whose record Kohli broke, required 143 one-day matches to score his first 15 centuries, Wednesday's match was Kohli's 106th game. India's greatest batsman, Sachin Tendulkar, scored his 15th one-day century in his 182nd match.His Delhi team-mate and the original swashbuckler of the team, Virender Sehwag, opening the batting, needed 251 games to make that many hundreds. Although it wouldn’t be fair to such draw comparisons, the numbers just illustrate how rapidly Kohli has grown into a match-winner and an appropriate candidate to take over the reins from Dhoni."Virat is playing the best cricket possible and I feel he's the best player in the world in the one-day format right now, so it made it a lot easier for me to bat with him," said debutant Ambati Rayudu, who shared in a 159-run stand for the third wicket after openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma were dismissed relatively cheaply.Meanwhile fans and experts alike heaped praise on the Delhi lad, many likening him to Sachin and hoping the Master Blaster's records will someday be his to hold...
The least number of innings to reach 15 ODI 100s is as follows :-106 V KOHLI
143 S Anwar
144 S Ganguly
147 C Gayle
161 H Gibbs
166 D Haynes This stylish Delhi boy is the next Indian skipper in the making. Well known for his on-the-field temperament Kohli had faced much criticism in the past, but gradually changed himself immensely. Kohli has all the strokes in his arsenal and once he gets the start, most of the times he convert it into big ones.
At the moment he plays at the crucial position of number three in the Indian team. If he performs in this passion in the long run, then days are not far when he might break many cricketing records including that of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.
After the match he said, "It's always good to kick off a tour with a win and personally I was happy with the way I played. The ball was moving around a bit early on and it was all about percentage cricket, rotating the strike and then playing your shots at the end," Kohli, man-of-the-match, said.
Kohli had struck a century in the West Indies when he led India in the absence of regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The young skipper credited his bowlers for setting up the easy chase.
"Our bowlers did a very good job up front. The new ball was doing quite a bit in the morning and with two new balls you can't count any team out," he said.
Kohli also acknowledged debutant Ambati Rayudu's effort as he came up with an unbeaten half-century. Kohli and Rayudu added 159 runs for the third wicket.
"Congratulations to Ambati Rayudu, he's got an India call-up after a long time and he's grabbed his opportunity very well," he said.
Rayudu, who played for Mumbai Indians in the IPL, seemed a satisfied man after spending a sleepless night before making his India debut.
"It's been a long wait for me. When I came to know about my debut, I couldn't sleep last night. I was totally blank. My only aim today was to go out there and enjoy myself. I decided that I will play each ball on its merit. It was great to play with Virat who is the best batsman in ODI cricket. My job was to play alongside him," he said.
Losing skipper Brendon Taylor was not disappointed with the effort of his side but wished they had scored some more runs against a formidable batting line-up.
"First hour was vital, we didn't lose any wickets but we could have been a bit more proactive. Against a quality side like India we needed 270 on the board," he said.
Taylor also derived satisfaction from performance of two players -- opener Skinadar Raza, who scored 82 and off-spinner Prosper Utseya, who took two of the four Indian wickets that fell.
Utseya accounted for Kohli and Suresh Raina, who could not even open his account.
"Sikandar Raza played very well, showing good composure despite having hardly played any games. Prosper Utseya was good with the ball and hopefully next time we can come out and express ourselves a little better," Taylor said.
What do you guyz think?? Can Virat Kohli break Tendulkar's record??
