The Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium is a good wicket to bat on, but it needed the genius of Virat Kohli to make the most of it. All the players ahead of him had made batting look a laborious vocation, but the India captain was all at ease from ball one.
The difference in class was apparent. After the way the Sri Lankans had fallen like nine pins, and Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay sweated on their way to their hundreds, Kohli’s effortless display must have been left them wondering if they were all playing on the same track. ( )
Virat smashed a double hundred (213, with 17 fours, two sixes), and Rohit Sharma hit an unbeaten hundred (102 not out, eight fours, one six) to help India declare their innings closed at 610 for six. With a lead of 405 runs and two days to go, Sri Lanka face an uphill task of saving the second Test.
To add to Lanka’s misery, Ishant Sharma came up with the ball of the match so far to clean up opener Sadeera Samarawickrama, clipping the top of the off-stump with the batsman shouldering arms to the second ball of the innings. Twenty one for one at stumps, they trail by 384 runs.
KOHLI’S KNOCK
Kohli’s basics are dead-strong: perfectly balanced at the crease, his head is still, the shot selection is followed by the perfect transfer of weight to generate power, and the wrist-work gives him that silken touch. All of it were in sync on Sunday as he treated the holiday crowd to delightful batting on way to 213 (17 fours, 2 sixes).
It is his fifth double century, equaling Rahul Dravid’s record of double hundreds. Only Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar are ahead of him with six each.
Starting the day on 54, Kohli produced a fine exhibition of controlled aggression. The India captain seemed to enjoy batting with Rohit Sharma. The two simply toyed with the bowling, and when their partnership touched 150 (off 220 balls), Kohli had contributed 69 and Sharma 75. The two were separated at the total of 583 when Kohli holed out at long-on after an association of 173 runs.
Kohli now has seven 150-plus scores in 19 Test hundreds, and add to it that his two innings of 140 plus, a 141 and 147, it amounts to a superb conversion rate. In the opening Test, Virat had hit an unbeaten 104 in the second innings at the Eden Gardens to make it two in two innings now.
ROHIT’S COMEBACK
India were in a strong position when Rohit came out to bat, but from a personal point of view it was an important innings for the Mumbai batsman. He is playing his first match after the 2016 series against New Zealand and only got the break because India chose to go in with four bowlers instead of their normal five.
Sharma made the most of it though, getting a century after having made three half-centuries in his last three Tests.
