Now, 'King' Kohli is fastest to 10,000 ODI runs, breaks Sachin Tendulkar’s record
Visakhapatnam, Oct 24: Virat Kohli Wednesday became the fastest to score 10,000 runs in One-day Internationals, rewriting, fittingly enough, the iconic Sachin Tendulkar's record and compounding the cricket community's conundrum to find the right superlatives for his phenomenal batting.
'King' Kohli comfortably bettered the record set by the man who was to Indian cricket for over two decades what the 29-year-old has been for the past few years.
Tendulkar took 259 innings to get there, while Kohli has so far batted in 205 innings. Fortune, too, was on Kohli's side as West Indies skipper Jason Holder dropped his Indian counterpart on 44.
Seventeen summers ago, Tendulkar had ventured into what was then an unchartered territory, during a match against Australia. On Wednesday, Kohli became the 13th batsman to reach the milestone with an unbeaten 157 off 129 balls, which was his 37th ODI hundred.
In the process, he also became the fastest to 1,000 runs in a calendar year, taking just 11 innings to get there.
Not long ago, while the cricket world struggled to look for words to aptly describe Kohli's phenomenal batting, his coach Ravi Shastri thought it would be wise to visit the bookstore, buy the latest edition of the Oxford dictionary and look for the adjectives that befit the captain and his superhuman feats.
"If I were you, I would visit the bookstore and pick up the Oxford dictionary," Shastri had said after a Kohli century guided India to victory over South Africa in February.
Some years ago, Tendulkar, after scoring his 100th international century, said he would love to see an Indian -- someone like Kohli or Rohit Sharma -- break his records.
At a venue set amidst picturesque hills, Kohli reached the mark when he played Ashley Nurse for a single in the 37th over of the second ODI against the West Indies.
Having an enviable record at the Dr YSR ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium with scores of 118, 117, 99 and 65, Kohli began his latest innings with a boundary through the off-side.
Entering the game 81 short of 10,000, with this achievement the run machine added another feather to his illustrious cap.
Kohli has been in sublime form across formats this year and has scored over 900 runs in ODIs alone. He is currently the world's No.1 batsman in both the Test and one-day formats.
Kohli's journey has been awe-inspiring, from his first-class debut, winning the U-19 World Cup, captaining the Indian team, to rewriting batting records at will.
"Virat Kohli has redefined what consistency means," tweeted swashbuckling former opener Virender Sehwag.
With his unbeatable performances, Kohli has won several accolades including the Arjuna award, ICC World Cricketer of the year and multiple BCCI international Cricketer of the Year awards.
"It's an incredible achievement by Virat to complete 10,000 runs ODI before he is even 30 years old. It's only expected that Virat will reach many more batting milestones in future," BCCI acting president CK Khanna said.
In the first match against the Caribbean side, Kohli notched up his 36th ODI hundred as he stroked his way to a breezy 140, helping the home team take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Besides Tendulkar and Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rahul Dravid are the other Indian cricketers to cross 10000 runs in the format.
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It’s not a marketing gimmick: Vipul Shah on making ‘The Kerala Story 2’
Mumbai (PTI): Filmmaker Vipul Shah says he felt compelled to make a sequel to "The Kerala Story", his controversial 2023 movie about religious conversion, as he wanted to expose a "much larger evil" that extends beyond Kerala and across the country.
The sequel, titled “The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond”, hit theatres last week amid a huge controversy. The film depicts the stories of three Hindu women from different states who defy their families to marry Muslim men and are subsequently forced to convert.
Shah, who has co-written the film and produced it through the banner Sunshine Pictures, said there was no pre-planned franchise strategy after the first film, which earned over Rs 300 crore at the box office and won two National Awards.
“There was no plan to make even ‘Kerala Story 2’. But after ‘Kerala Story 1’, we started getting lots of stories, I realised that there is a much larger evil persisting not just in Kerala but across the country and we’ve to tell this story because it is much bigger and different than what happened in ‘Kerala Story 1’ and that's why we decided to make part 2.
"It was not like a marketing gimmick that, ‘Let's make part two, it's a good brand, let's take it forward’. No, nothing like that,” Shah told PTI in an interview.
While the first part, which was also based on the religious conversion and radicalisation of young women, was directed by Sudipto Sen, the follow-up is helmed by Kamakhya Narayan Singh.
Asked if there will be a third part of the franchise, Shah said there are no concrete plans yet.
“But if there are compelling stories coming our way, some new facts will come to light, maybe we will want to tell that story. But as of today, there is no plan,” he added.
While the creative process of making the sequel was “intense and passionate”, the release has been anything but smooth.
After its trailer was released online, the movie was labelled as hate propaganda by many on social media and in political circles.
Last week, a single bench of the Kerala High Court stayed the film’s release for 15 days. Shah subsequently moved a division bench in appeal, which set aside the earlier order, clearing the way for the movie’s release.
"We all knew the release would be a very big challenge. We had to go through a lot of scrutiny, first on social media, then through court. What's upsetting is that in this noise, the real subject which you reach out to people sometimes gets clouded. You don't want that, you want people to understand the reality of the subject. And look at it from a point of view that there are so many girls whose lives are getting lost.”
With the sequel now running in theatres, Shah claimed that theatre owners in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been receiving threats to pull the movie.
In Kerala, activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) staged protests outside theatres screening the film, saying they would not allow its screening as it allegedly depicts the state in a bad light.
“It is very disturbing news, some people are threatening the theatre owners in Kerala and Tamil Nadu... they are violating court orders by threatening theatre owners to stop showing the film.
"It is a violation of my right, it is a violation of the order of the court. I would urge both the governments and the chief ministers to take stringent action. Even if they don't agree with the film, it's fine, but that doesn't mean that they will not protect my right,” the producer added.
Though Shah has been making hard-hitting titles like “The Kerala Story” and “Bastar”, he said he has not abandoned commercial cinema.
He recently wrapped “Governor”, starring Manoj Bajpayee, and is gearing up for “Hisaab” with actor wife Shefali Shah and Jaideep Ahlawat.
“Since I made ‘Bastar’ and ‘Kerala Story’, people started thinking that I’ve decided that I will only make this kind of film. It is not true though. I’ll be making all kinds of films. That is what makes me creatively happy and I’m going to continue to do that,” said the producer, who has directed mainstream films like “Aankhen”, “Namastey London”, “Waqt” and “London Dreams”.
Shah said "Hisaab” is about a bank robbery, and he is looking to release it theatrically in June-July.
“I always wanted to make a unique bank robbery. It is unique, funny, and intelligent, just like ‘Aankhen’, which had three blind guys robbing bank. But this is extraordinary, far more believable, real and something like this has never been made in India,” the producer said.
