VIRAT KOHLI KNOCKS MAIDEN DOUBLE TON AS INDIA EYE DOMINATION OVER THE WEST INDIES IN FIRST TEST
MILESTONE India skipper’s career first double ton helps visitors take control of the first Test, Ashwin joins the party
NORTH SOUND (ANTIGUA): Outside a St John’s eatery famous for its ribs, salt fish and bakes, an elderly man was resting his head on his radio, impatiently waiting for news on cricket after the first day’s play.
The teenager seated beside him finally relieved him of his misery by checking the score on his smart phone. “Virat made a century?” he asked. On getting confirmation, he shook his head for a few seconds. “Thank god I didn’t go. Who wants to see West Indies being hammered like this?” he said.
If that was the general reaction to Kohli’s century, the prospect of a double century could drive away even more West Indies loyals. It turned out to be exactly that Friday morning. At a quiet stadium bristling with the sea breeze that sweeps across the ground, Kohli reached his first double century with a single through midwicket.
In the process he also became the first India captain to score a double hundred overseas. While his first hundred took 134 balls, Kohli’s second came in another 147 deliveries. That doesn’t mean Kohli slowed down any time during his 283-ball stay. Only his efficiency in picking the right balls to score jacked up.
ASHWIN MAKES MERRY
Kohli scoring a double century isn’t unexpected in these circumstances. Particularly disconcerting, however, for the West Indies was the way R Ashwin raised his stock as an allrounder by crafting a patient half-century.
Throughout the 168-run partnership for the fifth wicket, the hosts were mere spectators, waiting for something to happen. Fortunately for them, it did happen in the first over after lunch, again. Shannon Gabriel’s back of the length delivery, something that Kohli has made a habit of driving through covers with perfection, hit the bottom of the bat and clattered into his off-stump.
It ruined an opportunity of a possible triple century for Kohli but more significantly, West Indies still didn’t play any crucial part in this dismissal too. It was Kohli’s own undoing. In such favourable conditions, Ashwin couldn’t have let gone the opportunity to make hay. So benign was the wicket that Ashwin actually stepped out to defend Devendra Bishoo’s slow leg-spin. Few minutes later, he looked in perfect control leaving a Carlos Brathwaite delivery just inches away from his off-stump.
SLOWING DOWN
The pitch is slowing down though. First sign of that came in the 104th over by Brathwaite where two consecutive deliveries stayed low after pitching. But as long as the West Indies bowlers didn’t attack the stumps, Kohli and Ashwin didn’t mind the odd ones that didn’t rise enough.
Like a popular movie on the loop, Kohli and Ashwin kept blocking and piercing the gaps with ease. In due time, Ashwin raised his fifty with a boundary punched through point. The scoring pattern achieved such a boring con- sistency that it showed no sign of abating even after Kohli departed. It left the West Indies players with their hands on the hips.
These clearly are not the best of times for West Indies cricket. When the camera panned once on Sir Vivian Richards in the commentary box, he appeared stoic, bravely watching the almost abject surrender of his ‘boys’.
The stands are empty, the sound boxes have fallen silent. India though are playing like they never left home.