Pune: India captain Virat Kohli closed in on Australian legend Ricky Ponting’s record after scoring a century on the second day of the second Test against South Africa on Friday (October 11).

The 30-year-old Kohli brought up his 26th Test century at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium. This was Kohli’s 40th international hundred as a captain. He is the first Indian skipper to achieve the feat.

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Kohli has so far scored 21 ODI tons as a skipper and 19 in Tests as the team’s leader. He is just one century behind the leader Ponting (41 international centuries as captain).

In the morning session of the second day, Kohli reached his three-figure mark with a boundary off paceman Vernon Philander. The Delhi right-hander scored his first century of the year 2019.

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The ongoing Test is the 50th as captain for Kohli. He is only the second Indian to the milestone after Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who led in 60 Tests.

Kohli also became the fourth quickest to score 26 Test centuries. The record is owned by Australian legend Sir Don Bradman who took 69 innings to reach the milestone. Kohli needed 138 visits to the crease.

The Indian skipper is also nearing the 7,000-Test run milestone. At lunch on second day of the Test, Kohli was not out on 104 and needs 96 more to complete 7,000 runs in the five-day format.

In the ongoing India-South Africa three-Test series for the Gandhi-Mandela Trophy, the hosts lead 1-0 after won the first game by 203 runs in Visakhapatnam. The final Test is in Ranchi from October 19.

Virat Kohli’s international centuries as captain

21 in ODIs (80 matches)

19 in Tests (50 matches)

Most Test hundreds as captain

25 — Graeme Smith (193 innings)

19 — Virat Kohli (83)

19 — Ricky Ponting (140)