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Virat Kohli stands between England and victory

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BIRMINGHAM: With his 149 at Edgbaston on Thursday, Virat Kohli has won over English hearts. The British media is going gaga hailing King Kohli's "imperious effort" and the feeling is he has set the tone for the series. But the man who is most impressed with his efforts is a legend who knew how to deal with adversities with a supreme sense of style.Kumar Sangakkara is so impressed with the way Virat has batted of late, not just here but across the world, that he feels the Indian captain is destined for greater milestones. "The way he is playing, Virat can well become the greatest ever Indian batsman," Sangakkara told TOI on the sidelines of his commentary stint on Friday.This means Sangakkara believes Kohli will go past his 'greatest rival' for the history books, Sachin Tendulkar . "In terms of Sachin's legacy both in terms of cricket and the way he has dealt with pressure, he is unique. But Virat is well on his way to match that. He is comfortably the best in the world of his generation and with time, he will mature even more. If he understands himself a bit better and keeps improving his game, he will break quite a few records," Sangakkara said.Virat already has 57 international centuries. Does this mean Sachin's record of 100 hundreds is on the line? "It's up to him how long he plays and if he does for a while, a few serious records will be broken," Sanga said.Getting to Thursday's innings, the Lankan legend felt it was the "decisive feet movement of Virat that did the job". Kohli, despite, giving a couple of chances, was never unsure about his feet movement and that made the difference. He even negotiated with a couple of hostile spells from swing king James Anderson, who gave him a torrid time in 2014.But Anderson himself felt that despite the India captain's century, his battle with Virat is far from over. "Yes, he has definitely won the first round, but the battle is on. We will look to lift the standards and see how it goes," Anderson told SkySports.The paceman felt Kohli "is still playing with hard hands", the way he played in 2014. "A couple of chances were put down and that hurt our chances. Ben (Stokes) first came and told me that Kohli is standing outside the crease to deal with the swing but I don't think that's going to bother me," Anderson, who got 2-41, said.But the paceman did concede that by standing outside the crease, Kohli's chances of getting leg-before were negated. "He is taking the leg-before out of the equation but I think our bowlers have done a good job in the first innings."