‘Freak, Rockstar, Fighter, Winner, Believer’ – Virat Kohli hailed for SA showing

Cricketers, present and former, as well as fans, took to Twitter on Friday evening to lavish praise on Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli for his imperious form throughout the tour of South Africa

“I have a tip for you. If I was in your position, I know what I would be doing tomorrow. I will be going to the book store, and buying the latest Oxford dictionary… just to improve my vocabulary.” (IND v SA 6th ODI HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD)

Virat Kohli, Indian cricket team captain, won the Man of the Series award after hitting three centuries and a fifty in the 5-1 win over South Africa in the six-match ODI series. (BCCI)

Indian cricket team coach Ravi Shastri is usually breathing fire and known to being fiery. But on Friday night, as he sat beside Virat Kohli, Shastri was all smiles, urging journalists to find the latest dictionary to discover new words for the Indian captain.

After all, the record-maker Virat Kohli on Friday had smacked his 35th ODI century — third in the six-match series and fourth in the South Africa tour — to help Indian cricket team maul the hosts by 8 wickets and take the ODI series 5-1.

Kohli not only consolidated his claim as the best batsman across formats with a dominant show in South Africa — he was the only batsman from either teams to score a century in Test series — but also kept on creating new records.

His tally of 558 in six ODIs at a whopping 186 — inclusive of three centuries and a fifty — was the first occasion a batsman amassed more than 500 runs in a bilateral series.

Kohli had topped the batting charts in the Test series too, scoring 286 runs at 47.66 with one century and a fifty.

Cricketers, past and present, as well as fans, took to Twitter on Friday evening to lavish praise on the Indian skipper for his imperious form throughout the tour.

Here is a look at some of the reactions:

Kohli, who is the only cricketer averaging in excess of 40 in T20 Internationals, will be leading India in the three-match T20I series starting Sunday against South Africa.