Indian Test captain Virat Kohli played a scintillating innings against New Zealand as he scored a double ton.
.@imVkohli becomes first captain of India to score two Test double hundreds pic.twitter.com/eIcuxdmFuD
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 9, 2016
Kohli notched up his second double ton of the year by scoring 211 while Rahane posted his second hundred of 2016 with a 188 as India rode their record-breaking fourth-wicket stand of 365. India declared their innings at 557/6 and are in commanding position.
Kohli got several congratulatory messages for the splendid show.
Not a single shot in the air by Kohli thus far..can’t b easy to drive a Ferrari at 60kmph even when the roads are deserted. What discipline!
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 9, 2016
We will know today if it’s the class of Kohli & Rahane that put the pitch to sleep or this is indeed a flat pitch.#INDvNZ
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) October 10, 2016
Indians Who Have Scored Two Test Double Centuries In A Year:
Kambli: 1993
Dravid: 2003
Tendulkar: 2004 & 2010
Sehwag: 2008
Virat KOHLI: 2016— Sir Ravindra Jadeja (@SirJadejaaaa) October 9, 2016
But the best compliment came from the enemy camp.
New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said the Indian captain had taken the game away from the visitors.
“(It was) high quality batting, took a good delivery to create half chances. Went through long periods of play where we reeled out a lot of plans, stuck to our game well, but we were worn down. Kohli killed us softly, is the nicest way of describing it, after scoring about 120 singles (out of his career best score of 211),” Hesson told media at the end of the day’ play.
“A tough day but, sounds funny, also a satisfying day in terms of the standards we set. Our seam bowlers delivering 30 overs, 135-140 kmph at times, in heat and humidity. At no stage did we roll over and give soft runs. I thought it was a high quality Test cricket. We contributed to that with our bowling.
“When you go over a 100 overs without a wicket it can be demoralising. If you’re not strong willed and keep fighting it can be tough, but we did that pretty well,” he added.
Why he said Kohli killed them softly?
He took 117 singles and 7 twos. He scored only 37.91 per cent of the runs in boundaries. This was the lowest percentage among all double-centuries Indian batsmen have scored in the last 26 years.
Watch: Another great innings by Virat Kohli
(IANS inputs)
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