Port of Spain: Virat Kohli is breaking batting records at will. The India captain is just 30 years of age and already has 68 hundreds, only 32 less than Sachin Tendulkar's all-time record that, at one point in time, looked improbable to break.

Kohli is not just making batting look ridiculously easy but he is also scoring at an unprecedented consistency across all formats of the game.

In a jaw-dropping stat that is a reflection of his greatness, Kohli became the first and only batsman to score 20,000 runs in international cricket in a decade.

Kohli has scored 20502 runs across all 3 formats out of which he has scored 20018 in the ongoing decade. Kohli made his Test and T20I debut in 2010 while he had already scored 484 runs in ODI cricket in the previous decade after making his debut in the 50-over format in 2008.

Ricky Ponting had held the record for the most international runs scored in a decade with 18962 runs in 2000s. Jacques Kallis, the legendary South Africa all-rounder, is a distant third on the list with 16777 runs in 2000s.

Mahela Jaywardene and Kumar Sangakkara are 4th and 5th on the list of most runs scored in a decade with 16304 and 15999, respectively. India's Sachin Tendulkar is 6th with 15962 runs in the 2000s while Rahul Dravid is 7th with 15853 runs.

Kohli got past the 20,000-run mark when hit a match-winning 114 not out in just 99 balls in the 3rd ODI of a 3-match series against West Indies in Port of Spain on Wednesday. Kohli's second successive and 43rd ODI hundred helped India seal a 2-0 win in the ODI series.

courtesy: indiatoday.in

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New Delhi: There appears to be a glimmer of hope for Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala on death row in Yemen, as report suggest Iranian officials may reach out to the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, her former business partner, to seek a pardon through blood money. Priya was sentenced to death for Mahdi's murder.

The 37-year-old nurse is currently imprisoned in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, which is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis.

A report by The New Indian Express published on Friday stated that discussions are underway to gain the victim's family’s support in seeking a pardon. “It’s a relief of sorts. Iran officials could use their good offices with Houthis for the reach-out with family of the victim. Some cash has been arranged for blood money and talks are on to get the family on board to seek pardon, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed,” a source told the publication.

It is learnt that using an appropriate intermediary equivalent of Rs 30 lakh has been kept ready, the report added.

Hailing from Kollengode in Kerala’s Palakkad district, the nurse was found guilty of murdering the Yemeni citizen in July 2017. She was handed capital punishment by a trial court in 2020 while Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023.

Mahdi, reportedly died from an overdose of sedatives allegedly injected by Priya to retrieve her passport from him.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the Indian government is extending all possible help in the matter. “We are closely following the developments around the sentencing of Nimisha Priya. The government is extending all possible help in the matter,” he said last week.