India have qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy and will be up against fellow title contenders New Zealand in what promises to be a humdinger in Dubai in the final group-stage match of the ongoing Champions Trophy. It has been a longish break for the Men in Blue since they last played their previous Group A game against Pakistan and will hope that the players are not rusty as India will be playing their semi-final clash in two days’ time at the same venue.

Virat Kohli, who was just struggling a bit with his form and not being able to kick on and get a big score, came up clutch in the crucial Pakistan encounter and smashed his 51st ODI century and 82nd overall across three formats. Kohli reached the milestone of 14,000 runs in ODIs during his knock and broke a slew of other records as he put up a clinic in the big game. A week later, Kohli will be featuring in an ODI for the 300th time and is on the brink of achieving another record.

Kohli, who will become the seventh Indian player to get the landmark of 300 ODIs, took his tally in the Champions Trophy to 651 runs in 15 matches after his unbeaten century. Kohli is 51 runs away from becoming India’s all-time leading run-getter in the knockout tournament, surpassing Shikhar Dhawan (701). 

The top run-getter in the Champions Trophy is the West Indies legend, Chris Gayle, who is 140 runs ahead of Kohli. But with India set to play at least a couple of games having qualified for the semis, Kohli has every chance to become the all-time log leader in the eight-team event, in his final edition.