Who is the first batter to score 13,000 ODI runs at No. 3?

Virat Kohli. NDTV Sports, News18 and CricTracker all reported that he became the first to reach 13,000 ODI runs while batting at No. 3, in the first ODI against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland, on 4 November 2026.

How did Kohli reach 13,000 runs at No. 3?

He needed 12 runs at the start of the match. NDTV Sports said he got there off the 13th ball of his innings, in the seventh over of India's chase of 186. News18 and CricTracker put that same ball at 6.2 overs of India's innings, which is the seventh over.

How does Kohli compare with Ricky Ponting at No. 3?

NDTV Sports lists Kohli on 13,000 runs in 251 innings at 61.55 with an asterisk, and Ponting on 12,662 runs in 330 innings at 42.48. NDTV, News18 and CricTracker all say Kohli and Ponting are the only two batters to have passed 10,000 ODI runs at No. 3.

What did Kohli score in the Eden Park ODI, and who won?

Kohli made 74 off 51. India won by 5 wickets under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method after rain cut the chase. The full card, including the revised target of 143 in 32 overs, is in BharatBeat's Eden Park result explainer, which cites the ESPNcricinfo scorecard.

What was Kohli's ODI form in 2026 before the New Zealand series?

NDTV Sports said that before the series he had scored 552 runs in nine ODI innings at an average of 69, with two centuries, including 139 not out off 88 balls against the West Indies, and three half-centuries.

Who else has the most ODI runs at No. 3?

On the NDTV Sports list after Kohli and Ponting: Kumar Sangakkara 9,747 at 44.71, Jacques Kallis 7,774 at 45.72, Kane Williamson 6,504 at 51.61, Babar Azam 6,054 at 55.54, and Joe Root 5,525 at 53.12. News18's table lists the same run totals.

Virat Kohli Becomes the First Batter to 13,000 ODI Runs at No. 3, Explained

Virat Kohli is the first batter in ODI history to score 13,000 runs at No. 3. He reached the mark on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, in the first ODI against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland, during India's chase of 186.

He walked in needing 12 runs. NDTV Sports said he got them off the 13th ball of his innings, in the seventh over of the chase. News18 (Harshit Bisht, last updated 12:16 IST) and CricTracker (Vishal Jagtap, 13:53 IST) put that ball at 6.2 overs of India's innings. In the scorebook, 6.2 is the third ball of the seventh over, so those accounts describe the same moment.

The knock did not stop at the milestone. The Eden Park result explainer records the finish from the ESPNcricinfo full scorecard: Kohli made 74 off 51, and India won by 5 wickets under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.

The 60-second version

The record: First batter to 13,000 ODI runs at No. 3. Eden Park, first ODI, 4 November 2026. NDTV Sports, News18 and CricTracker.
How it arrived: 12 runs needed at the start. 13th ball. NDTV said the seventh over of the chase of 186. News18 and CricTracker said 6.2 overs, the same over.
The volume: 251 innings. NDTV's table prints the average as 61.55 followed by an asterisk. News18's table, filed while the innings was still marked not out, prints 13,000 with an asterisk at 61.6, with 48 hundreds and 69 fifties. NDTV's prose says the average was well above 60, with 48 centuries and nearly 70 half-centuries.
The only company above 10,000: Ricky Ponting, 12,662 runs in 330 innings at 42.48. NDTV Sports.
The rest of NDTV's list: Sangakkara 9,747 (44.71), Kallis 7,774 (45.72), Williamson 6,504 (51.61), Babar Azam 6,054 (55.54), Joe Root 5,525 (53.12).
The match: Kohli 74 off 51. India won by 5 wickets (DLS). Full card in the Eden Park result piece.
2026 before this series: NDTV said 552 runs in nine ODI innings at 69, two centuries including 139 not out off 88 against the West Indies, and three fifties.

Where the 13,000th run came

All three reports agree on the entry number. Kohli needed 12 runs when the Eden Park match began, and the landmark was his 12th run, off the 13th ball he faced.

They also agree it came in India's chase of 186, which was New Zealand's 185 all out plus the one run that sets an unchanged target. Rain later changed that target. The milestone itself, on NDTV, News18 and CricTracker, is pinned to the original chase of 186, not to the revised one. NDTV places the ball in the seventh over. News18's phrase is "the 13th ball of his innings (6.2 overs of India)". CricTracker says "the 13th ball he faced in the 6.2 overs of the innings".

News18's table still carried an asterisk on the runs (13,000), and NDTV printed an asterisk on the average (61.55). Both marks fit a table taken while he was still batting. He did not finish not out. The result explainer, citing ESPNcricinfo, has him caught Tim Seifert, bowled Jacob Duffy, for 74 off 51, with 13 fours and one six.

NDTV Sports described him as 37.

Kohli and Ponting, then daylight

NDTV Sports published this list under "Batters With Most Runs At No. 3":

Batter	Runs	Average
Virat Kohli	13,000	61.55 (asterisk)
Ricky Ponting	12,662	42.48
Kumar Sangakkara	9,747	44.71
Jacques Kallis	7,774	45.72
Kane Williamson	6,504	51.61
Babar Azam	6,054	55.54
Joe Root	5,525	53.12

NDTV printed an asterisk after 61.55. On the published totals, 13,000 is 338 runs ahead of Ponting's 12,662. NDTV also gave the innings behind the top two: Kohli 251, Ponting 330. The average gap on those NDTV figures is the other half of the record. Ponting's career at the slot sits at 42.48. Kohli's, even on the not-out snapshot, is in the low 60s.

News18's fuller table, last updated at 12:16 IST, matches those run totals and adds columns NDTV's short list left out. It has Kohli at 254 matches, 251 innings, a best of 183, average 61.6, 48 hundreds and 69 fifties, spanning 2009-2026, with the runs still marked not out. CricTracker, at 13:53 IST, has the same shape: 251st innings at the position, a span it describes as batting there 254 times between 2009 and 2026, average 61.6, best 183, 48 centuries and 69 half-centuries. NDTV's prose said "nearly 70" half-centuries. News18 and CricTracker both print 69.

News18's innings column for the rest of the list: Ponting 330 (335 matches), Sangakkara 238, Kallis 200, Williamson 140, Babar Azam 124, Root 123. CricTracker gives those same innings counts. Averages below Kohli do not differ between the NDTV list and the News18 table.

NDTV, News18 and CricTracker each say the same thing about the 10,000 club at this position: only Kohli and Ponting are in it. Sangakkara, next among the names NDTV printed, is on 9,747.

The small difference between 61.55 and 61.6 is a difference between outlets, not a second milestone. NDTV printed 61.55 with an asterisk. News18 and CricTracker printed 61.6 while the innings was unfinished. Neither figure is a final average for a completed, dismissed knock of 74. Record sites will settle that after the card is closed. The fact those pages do agree on is the one that makes the headline: no one else has 13,000 ODI runs at No. 3.

The 2026 scores that sat underneath it

NDTV Sports separated the milestone from the year that led into it. Before the New Zealand series, it said, Kohli had scored 552 runs in nine ODI innings at an average of 69. Two of those innings were centuries. The top score NDTV named was 139 not out off 88 balls against the West Indies. He also had three half-centuries before arriving in New Zealand.

That is the form line NDTV published before the series. It does not include the 74 he then made in Auckland. NDTV did not reprint a revised 2026 aggregate after he was out, so the 552 stays the pre-series figure.

The innings around the record

The record ball was early. The match was not a short one for him after that. ESPNcricinfo's full scorecard, as used in the Eden Park result explainer, has the rest:

Kohli 74 off 51, 13 fours and one six, caught Seifert, bowled Duffy.
His fifty came off 35 balls.
Captain Shubman Gill made 37 off 56. The second wicket fell at 114.
India, after two rain breaks, were set 143 in 32 overs and got there at 143/5 in 22.4 overs.
India won by 5 wickets with 56 balls left, and lead the five-match series 1-0.

New Zealand had been bowled out for 185 in 40.2 overs. Arshdeep Singh took 4-70, Gurnoor Brar 3-44, and Anshul Kamboj, player of the match, 2-22. The toss, the XIs and the revised targets are in the result explainer. The series list is in the ODI series guide.

The 13,000 runs are a career pile at one batting position. The 74 is one innings inside a rain-shortened chase. Both are true of the same afternoon, and they answer different questions. The record is about every ODI in which he has batted at No. 3 since 2009. The result is about Eden Park on 4 November.

What to watch next

Wellington, Saturday 7 November, 7:30 AM IST. The second ODI. India lead 1-0. The time is the BCCI listing used in the series guide. In India the series is on Sony Sports Network and SonyLIV.
The closed average. NDTV's 61.55 with an asterisk, and News18's 13,000 with an asterisk at 61.6, were live snapshots. He was out for 74. The next official No. 3 line should drop the not-out mark and recompute the average from a completed innings.
The gap to everyone else. Ponting's 12,662 in 330 innings is still the only other total above 10,000. Sangakkara's 9,747 is the next published figure on the NDTV list. No active name on that list is close to 13,000.
Whether the 2026 form holds. NDTV's pre-series line was 552 runs in nine innings at 69, with the 139 not out off 88 against the West Indies as the top score. Auckland added a 74. Wellington is the next chance to see if that year keeps its shape.

Kohli's 13,000 at No. 3 is a first. Ponting is the only batter who has even 10,000 there. The Eden Park chase, which he left on 74, is the innings in which the first of those numbers ticked over.

The milestone, the 12 runs required, the 13th ball, the seventh over, the 251 innings, the 61.55 average with an asterisk, the 48 centuries, the "nearly 70" half-centuries, Ponting's 12,662 in 330 innings at 42.48, the rest of the No. 3 list, and the 2026 line of 552 runs in nine innings at 69 with 139 not out off 88 against the West Indies and three fifties, are from NDTV Sports. The 6.2 overs timing, the 61.6 average, the 254 matches, the best of 183, and the 48 hundreds and 69 fifties are from News18 (Harshit Bisht, last updated 12:16 IST on 4 November 2026) and from CricTracker (Vishal Jagtap, published 13:53 IST the same day). News18 also supplies the extra innings counts below Ponting. Kohli's 74 off 51, the mode of dismissal, the fifty off 35 balls, Gill's 37, the second wicket at 114, New Zealand's 185 in 40.2 overs, and India's 5-wicket DLS win at 143/5 in 22.4 overs are from the ESPNcricinfo full scorecard as recorded in BharatBeat's Eden Park result explainer. The 7:30 AM IST Wellington listing is the BCCI time in the series guide. Live averages that still carry an asterisk were compiled while Kohli was batting.