India legend Sachin Tendulkar led the bandwagon of congratulatory posts for Kohli as he celebrated India landing the knockout blow on Pakistan. He tweeted: “A perfect ending to the most awaited match. A real knockout! Team India Superb knocks by @imVkohli, @ShreyasIyer15, and @ShubmanGill, and wonderful bowling by our bowlers especially @imkuldeep18 and @hardikpandya7!”

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly also praised India’s show of superiority against Pakistan. His tweet read: “Expected win for india .. far superior team with far superior intent with bat and ball .. super stuff from kohli ,gill and Shreyas and the bowling @bcci.”

Pakistan legend Shoaib Akhtar, who had predicted before the tournament that Kohli would bounce back to form against Pakistan, hoped that the 36-year-old would go on to match Sachin’s record of 100 international hundreds. Kohli is still 19 away from the ultimate feat.

“Again we all saw, if you tell Virat Kohli that he’s going to play against Pakistan, he will come fully prepared and score a century. Hats off to him, he’s like a superstar, he’s a white-ball run chaser, a modern-day great. There’s no doubt about that, I’m really happy for him as he’s an honest man,” Akhtar said in a video on X. “He also completed his 14,000 runs in ODIs today, I hope he goes on to complete 100 international centuries in the future. I really want him to do that, I hope this guy gets it all. I’m really really happy for him. Wish him all the best and I think, he deserves all the praises seriously. The way he came out and played a flawless innings today,” he added.

‘Mai Virat Kohli ki mehnat se hairan hu’

Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan said his respect for Kohli had rocketed after accepting that he got the better of the Pakistan attack despite their desperate effort to get him out during the Champions Trophy face-off.

“Mai Virat Kohli ki mehnat se hairan hu (I am in awe of his hard work). What kind of hard work he must have put in? The whole world is saying he is out of form, but he comes to a big match the whole world waits for, he comes and scores runs easily, wins the match, becomes the Man of the Match. I will praise his hard work and his fitness levels. We tried our best to get him out, but he got the better of us. It means he has put in the hard work behind the scenes,” he said.