This century meant a lot to Ajinkya Rahane. The extent of this century’s importance can be ascertained by the way Rahane’s wife Radhika Dhopavkar reacted from the stands at Colombo. Rahane scored his 9th Test ton and ended a drought of centuries in Tests, which was one of the reasons for his place on the team to have been in question. This century came after 17 innings. The last Test century he scored was in October 2016 against New Zealand at Indore.
Rahane completed his century in 151 balls. Sri Lankan bowlers and fielders had tried to create pressure on Rahane when he had scored 90. He kept his calm and did not succumb to the pressure. He defended a few balls and took a quick single to complete his century. His wife, in the stands seemed to be quite nervous she almost jumped from her seat when Rahane was on 99 but kept her celebrations for later when the umpire signalled byes.
The camera kept on switching between Rahane and his wife as he was progressing towards his century. She got up from her chair in an instant when Rahane reached his century. She was sitting right below the dressing room from where Head Coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli applauded his effort by giving him a standing ovation.
Finally! She said, after @ajinkyarahane88 gets to a well-made 9th Test century #TeamIndia #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/l1HlAM95x2
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 3, 2017
And how good were these two! @ajinkyarahane88 & @cheteshwar1 continue their partnership inside the dressing room #TeamIndia #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/0GxhNyHbx9
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 3, 2017
Rahane scored a century after 9 Tests as he got off to good start but could not convert them into big scores. Rahane put up a vital partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara who scored 128 on Day 1. They carried a partnership of 211 runs till the fourth, wicket rescuing the team after KL Rahul and Virat Kohli’s wicket went down.
India scored 344 for 3 on Day 1 and took the upper hand over the hosts in the Colombo Test.
