Rohit also slams hundred as India smell victory
By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Nov 26
HIS hunger to score runs never ends. Whenever Virat Kohli walks in to bat, scorers world over have to be on their toes and statisticians get ready to update their record books.
On a lazy Sunday at VCA Jamtha, the captain broke several records as India piled on the agony on a pedestrian Sri Lankan bowling to declare at 610 for six. At stumps, Sri Lanka were 21 for 1, trailing by 384 runs.
Ishant Sharma had sent Sadeera Samarawickrama back for the second time in the match. Sharma’s second delivery nipped in and kissed the bails on off stump to stun the opener.
The day, though, belonged to Kohli. On July 21, 2016, he had slammed his first double hundred against the West Indies. After just 16 months, the batsman now has five under his belt after he hit a magnificent 213 against Sri Lanka. Kohli also joined Rahul Dravid who also has scored five double centuries.
It was Kohli’s 12th century while leading the Indian team and he surpassed Sunil Gavaskar’s previous record of 11 tons.
Kohli also slamed his 10th International century in a year which has six in ODIs and four in Tests.
Ricky Ponting with nine hundreds (each in 2005 and 2006) and South African Graeme Smith (nine in 2005) held the record for most number of tons in one year whil leading their sides.
Kohli had scored a century in Nagpur against England in 2012. Three years later the captain was not among runs against South Africa with (22 and 16 runs) nothing to show. However, this time Kohli cracked the code with his fifth double hundred to bat Lanka out of the second Test. Rohit Sharma, too, hit an unbeaten 102 to end his four-year wait for a Test century. Once the Mumbai batsman crossed the three-figure mark, India declared their innings. This is only the third instance when India had four centurions in the innings.
The opposition showed semblance of attack as Kohli picked runs without any fuss. After tea, India increased the pace and Kohli and Rohit, who both added 173 runs for the fifth wicket, hit a couple of boundaries and sixes. The India captain raced to 194 with a six of Dilruwan Perera over mid-wicket. He tapped one straight to complete one of his easiest double centuries. The celebration was mild, not animated. Kohli just raised his bat and looked heavenwards. The pedestrian bowling attack might be the reason.
Cheteshwar Pujara (143) and Murali Vijay had laid the foundation with 209 runs for the second wicket. Kohli joined Pujara to add 183 runs for third wicket. Then he and Rohit Sharma made it impossible for the Sri Lankans to come back.
The door was shut on Lanka on third afternoon itself when Kohli and Pujara continued to fetch runs easily. Though Pujara started slowly, scoring his first run of the day after playing 23 dot balls, he did not give the visitors any space. The duo picked up singles from gaps and in the process Pujara completed 3000 Test runs becoming the quickest Indian batter to do so in 53 innings. He wiped off Tendulkar’s record of 55 innings.
But the year is all of Indian captain. He has now scored 10 Test centuries as a captain surpassing Australian Ricky Pointing who had nine.
It was as exquisite as it gets for Kohli. His footwork was marvellous, executing the drives and punching off backfoot. The opposition was weak and Kohli took full advantage of it. There was no change of gears as his fifty and hundred and double hundred came at the same pace and
from almost equal number of deliveries. The boundaries, too, were equally divided. For his half century, Kohli had taken 66 deliveries and had hit five boundaries. His next fifty came from 64 deliveries and had five fours. He took 63 balls to reach 150 and then another 66 to complete his double century. His flamboyant knock included 17 boundaries and two sixes. However, Kohli’s double ton overshadowed the fine innings of Pujara who held the innings from one end and also of Rohit, who was making his First Class comeback after 13 months layoff. For the visitors, they were on a leather hunt for whole day, except for the nine overs they batted in their second innings.
No comments:
Post a Comment