Virat Kohli Hits Confirmed 53rd ODI Century In Raipur

New Delhi, December 3: For a good part of the evening, nobody could quite agree on what number Virat Kohli’s latest ODI hundred should be filed under. The innings itself was clear enough. He got to 100 off 90 balls in Raipur, looking as composed as he has all year. But while the crowd had already begun shouting about “fifty-three,” the official tallies hesitated, as if the sport’s digital bookkeeping needed a moment to catch its breath.

A Hundred That Arrived Without Any Fuss

What stood out was how quietly the innings unfolded. Virat Kohli wasn’t chasing anything dramatic. No nervous nineties, no hard swipe to finish it. Just a nudge here, a threaded drive there, and suddenly the scoreboard rolled over to three digits. It felt almost routine, though that word never quite fits a player who draws this much expectation with every step he takes.

Still, the moment he raised his bat, social media exploded with the “#53” chant. Fans ran ahead of the statisticians, as they tend to do, and a few of them added that extra flourish about 53 being a prime number, which amused plenty of people even if it wasn’t exactly a verified tagline.

How The Number Finally Settled

For a short while, several scorekeeping sites continued to list 52 ODI centuries. A few early news articles also went for the safe wording: “Virat Kohli hits another hundred.” You could almost see the editors waiting for confirmation before committing to the updated figure. This sort of mismatch happens from time to time, especially with day games that wrap up before the numbers roll through every database.

By late evening, though, the hesitation vanished. Outlets like India Today, NDTV, and MyKhel updated their reports. All of them called it what people in the stands believed from the first minute: his 53rd ODI hundred. And once that shift happened, the rest of the cricket-following world moved on without further argument.

Why It Feels Like Something More

Virat Kohli centuries these days aren’t fireworks. They’re closer to well-rehearsed performances, built on patience and reading the field, not the sheer attacking instinct that defined his younger days. Watching him on Wednesday, you got a sense of someone who has stopped trying to prove anything to anyone. He knows exactly how to build an innings now, almost like tuning a familiar instrument.

That’s probably why this milestone carries weight. Fifty-three ODI centuries is a number that once seemed beyond reach for anyone not named Sachin Tendulkar. Kohli’s innings in Raipur didn’t carry the tight-chested drama that sports producers crave, but it reminded people that the long chase toward the top of that list isn’t finished yet.

That Prime-Number Slogan

As for the “still prime numbers” line it’s fan-made, plain and simple. Not a single match report used the phrase. It wasn’t part of any press conference. It wasn’t even hinted at by broadcasters. It just caught on because cricket watchers enjoy finding little patterns in the chaos, especially when their favourite player touches a fresh milestone.

There’s nothing wrong with that. The sport has always survived on small human rituals: someone’s lucky glove, someone else’s favourite superstition, the way fans hunt for symmetry in the score.

Where Things Now Stand

The uncertainty has cleared.
The scorebooks will all say the same thing by tomorrow morning.
Virat Kohli has 53 ODI hundreds, and Raipur now sits alongside the long list of grounds where he has done this before.

What began as a mildly confusing evening ended with another line in his legacy.

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Prakash Nair

Senior Sports Journalist – Prakash@hindustanherald.in – Web

Sports reporter covering cricket, football, and Olympic disciplines, with on-ground event experience.

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