Virat Kohli goes past Sachin Tendulkar, India bury Australia ghost to enter Champions Trophy final

India’s one and only Virat Kohli broke several records en route to scoring 84 runs off 98 balls in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final against Australia at the Dubai International Stadium on Tuesday.

This knock helped India defeat Australia by four wickets to enter the final of the eight-team tournament. Depending on the outcome of tomorrow’s second semi-final, they will face either New Zealand or South Africa.

Kohli perfectly aced the chase of 265, maintaining a solid tempo throughout the innings. He looked set for a big one, but in an attempt to go for a big shot, Kohli lost his wicket to Adam Zampa. The right-hander got much-needed support from Shreyas Iyer (45) and KL Rahul (42*) as India chased down the total with 11 balls to spare. As a result of this win, India reached their third successive Champions Trophy final.

Hardik Pandya also played a cameo of 28 runs off 24 balls to help take pressure off just when the chase seemed to have turned tricky. Hardik ate up a few deliveries, leaving the Dubai crowd slightly concerned, but just when a few nerves started to grow, consecutive sixes off Adam Zampa put the outcome of the match beyond doubt.

Kohli, 36, surpassed the 8000-run mark in ODI run-chases. He took 159 innings to achieve the milestone and now is the second batter in the sport’s history to have more than this many runs while chasing in the 50-over format. Sachin Tendulkar leads the charts for most runs in chases as the Master Blaster has 8720 runs to his name in 232 innings. Rohit Sharma is at the third spot on the list with 6115 runs. Kohli is the fastest to 8000 runs during run-chases, beating Tendulkar by a significant margin.

Kohli reached the milestone when he scored his 21st run. The right-hander is widely regarded as the ‘chase master’ as out of his 51 ODI tons, 28 have come while chasing. During the course of his innings against Australia, Kohli also surpassed Shikhar Dhawan in having the most runs for India in the Champions Trophy. Chris Gayle is the leading run-scorer in the Champions Trophy with 791 runs.

The former India captain also surpassed Tendulkar in having the most half-centuries in ICC ODI events as well. Kohli scored his 24th fifty-plus score in the Champions Trophy semi-final against Australia.

King Kohli also has the most centuries while chasing in ODIs. The second spot belongs to Tendulkar, who has 17 tons to his name. It needs to be mentioned that more than 70 per cent of Kohli’s runs in chases have resulted in victories, which happens to be the highest for any batter in the format. Meanwhile, Sharma has 16 centuries in run chases.

India lost Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill early

While chasing 265 against Australia, India lost Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill early. Spinner Cooper Connolly dismissed Rohit, while Ben Dwarshius bowled Gill.

Kohli and Shreyas Iyer then revived India’s innings by putting on 91 runs for the third wicket. However, Adam Zampa ended Shreyas Iyer’s 45-run knock in the 27th over. Kohli was looking set for his 83rd international century; however, this was not to be as he lost his wicket in trying to go big off the bowling of Adam Zampa.

Earlier, Australia were bowled out for 264 after opting to bat first. Steve Smith scored 79, while Alex Carey played a knock of 61. Mohammed Shami scalped three wickets for India, while Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja took two each.