India vs New Zealand 2nd T20I: Tillakaratne Dilshan awaits Virat Kohli’s 200th boundary

On September 9, 2016, Tillakaratne Dilshan played his last T20I match against Australia. Although it came in a losing cause, the Sri Lankan crowd turned out in large numbers.

Of his T20I career spanning from 2006 to 2016, Dilshan has scored 1,889 runs at 28.60. The all-rounder might not pay international cricket anymore, but he surely keeps a track of the players who are up to beat his records.

One such feat that Dilshan is eagerly awaiting is Virat Kohli’s 200th boundary in T20Is. Kohli is on the brink of becoming the first Indian player to hit 200 fours in T20Is. This might well happen in second game against New Zealand at Rajkot on Saturday. Only two batsmen – Dilshan and Mohammad Shahzad – have hit 200 fours in T20I matches.

While Dilshan took 80 matches to achieve this feat, Kohli would be reaching this milestone in 53 matches.

Speaking to daily observer, Dilshan spoke about Kohli’s milestone in detail.

On Kohli approaching 200th boundary

“I’ll be very happy to welcome him in our 200-club. Kohli has been playing good cricket and in last two years his performance on the field is appreciable. I’ll have no regrets when he crosses my record of 223 fours. We both have played IPL (Indian Premier League) together for Royal Challengers Bangalore. In fact, Kohli is quite young and is also capable of playing for another ten years and I am sure he will hit many more fours and sixes (both are known as boundaries) and create records in all department and formats of the game. Records don’t stay forever.”

On cricketers breaking records in limited-overs cricket

“Youngsters are doing well and it is good for cricket. There are good power hitters like Chris Gayle today. More records can be made in 50-over game than the T20s, because there are 300 balls to be bowled minimum by a team in its innings compared to only 120 balls in the shortest format of the game.”