India’s ace batter Virat Kohli has picked the 2003 World Cup game against Pakistan as the match he would have wanted to be part of. Kohli said he would have wanted to bat with legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar in that game.

Sachin scored a stunning knock of 98 runs off just 75 balls in the run chase of 276 against the arch-rivals. The Indian opener smashed a dozen fours and one six in his blistering knock as he scored his runs at a strike rate of 130.67. This is regarded as one of Sachin’s best knocks in the ODI format.

As a result, India went on to register a comfortable six-wicket win with 26 balls to spare, and Sachin was awarded Player of the Match.

Virat Kohli said on One8 YouTube Channel, “That’s quite a difficult one to answer. I’d probably say the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, Centurion. I would have loved to be batting with Sachin Paaji when he hit that shot off Shoaib, and the way he batted that day. That really knocked me into the reality of, ‘Woah, this is the level I want to get to.’ And I would love to be at the non-striker’s end.”

On the other hand, Kohli also shared a funny incident when the late Sri Lankan cheerleader Uncle Percy wanted to kiss Ajinkya Rahane.

“There was a very renowned Sri Lankan fan, now passed away, named Percy, and he used to come and dance at the stadiums. Very iconic. So he was dancing around the change room. We had a little bit of a break, and Ajinkya was vice-captain. So Ajinkya was dancing with him, and Percy went to kiss him. There’s a video of it on the internet. We were on the floor. Percy was going for it, and Jinx was like, ‘Oh, this is way too much.’ You know, Jinx was dancing, so he went for it, and then Percy went for Jinx. So that, for me, was the standout funniest fan.”

Kohli is currently out of action with a hamstring injury.