Slams career-best 243 for 6th double ton as Sri Lanka trails India by 406 runs
Skipper Virat Kohli's magnificent 243 was overshadowed by unprecedented scenes of mask-wearing Sri Lankan players, who halted proceedings thrice, complaining of poor air quality, on day two of the third Test, here on Sunday.
The unrelenting Lankans forced India to declare their first innings at 536 for seven as drama unfolded in the post- lunch session during which play was halted for 26 minutes due to pollution concerns.
However, the visiting batsmen had no complaints about air quality when they came out to bat after India's declaration.
A fired-up Indian attack reduced them to 131 for three at stumps and they are still trailing by a massive 406-run margin.
It could have been worse had Kohli not dropped Angelo Mathews’ regulation catch at second slip off Ishant Sharma.
Ishant (1/44), Mohammed Shami (1/30) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/24) shared the spoils as the visiting batsmen continued to struggle in negotiating Virat Kohli scaled yet another milestone, becoming the first skipper to hit six double centuries in Test cricket.
The 29-year-old Indian thus surpassed West Indies great Brian Lara, who held the record previously with five double tons in Tests.
India's current 'Milestone Man', who had emulated Rahul Dravid with his previous double century in Nagpur, today equalled Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag for maximum number of double hundreds for India in Tests.
Tendulkar had scored six double centuries, while Sehwag hit a record four double and two triple tons for India.
Playing in his 63rd Test, Kohli scored his record sixth Test double hundred on the second day of the ongoing third and final Test against Sri Lanka at the Feroz Shah Kotla here. This is also the second double century on the trot for the Indian captain.
Kohli pulled pacer Suranga Lakmal and ran two to bring up his sixth double century in 238 balls, which included 20 boundaries.He is also only the second Indian after Vinod Kambli to score back-to-back double hundreds. In 1993, the former lefthanded batsman had scored 224 against England in Mumbai and 227 against Zimbabwe in Delhi.
Overall, Kohli is in the sixth place in the list of most double hundreds in a career, which is topped by Australian legend Don Bradman (12), followed by Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (11), Lara (9), England's Wally Hammond (7) and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene (7).
Kohli took 105 innings to cross the 5000-mark, becoming the fourth fastest to achieve the feat in terms of innings behind Sunil Gavaskar (95), Virender Sehwag (99) and Sachin Tendulkar (103). the Indian attack.
Mathews (57 batting) and Chandimal (25 batting) added 56 runs for the unbroken fourth wicket stand.
It appeared to be another day of dominance for the Indian team with their skipper breaking many records but the antics by the visitors spoiled Kohli's party.
With their below-par bowling being sent on a leather hunt, Sri Lankan team seemed to disturb the rhythm of the Indian batsmen by halting the play which was evidently not appreciated by the hosts.
It is not the first time that an Indian team had to declare their innings due to compulsion though 40 years back, circumstances were vastly different.
In 1976 at Kingston (Jamaica), Michael Holding and Wayne Daniel’s ‘beamer ball tactic’ had left the Indian toporder injured.
India were 87 for 5 in their second innings, leading by only 12 runs when skipper Bishan Singh Bedi had to declare the innings fearing that Holding would injure his tailenders.
Sunil Gavaskar's iconic autobiography ‘Sunny Days’ has a chapter named ‘Barbarism at Kingston’ referring to Holding’s intimidating tactics.
Before the unfolding of the drama, it was a walk in the park for Kohli, who scored his sixth double hundred and became the first captain to score six Test double tons, eclipsing West Indies legend Brian Lara, who had five.
It was also Kohli's individual highest score, surpassing the previous best of 235 against England last year in Mumbai.
He also equalled Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag for maximum number of double hundreds. He played 287 balls and hit 25 boundaries before losing concentration due to constant stoppages as chinaman Lakshan Sandakan trapped him.
It was in the 123rd over, their fast bowler Lahiru Gamage suddenly stopped in his bowling stride before the fourth delivery.
Suddenly skipper Dinesh Chandimal was seen discussing animatedly with the on-field umpires as play was halted for 17 minutes. It disturbed Ravichandran Ashwin’s concentration as he was immediately dismissed by Gamage, who also left the field in the 125th over without completing the proceedings.
Suranga Lakmal completed his over but within a few minutes also left complaining uneasiness. The constant breaks affected Kohli’s concentration and he was trapped leg before.
While Kohli wanted play to continue, Sri Lanka manager Asanka Gurusinha informed the umpires that his fielders did not want to continue, prompting the home skipper to declare. This was after Indian INDIA 1ST INNINGS Vijay st Dickwella b Sandakan ...155 Dhawan c Lakmal b Perera ..........23 Pujara c Sadeera b Gamage.........23 Kohli batting..............Sandakan 243 Rahane st Dickwella b Sandakan..1 Rohit c Dickwella b Sandkan....... 65 R Ashwin c Perera b Gamage..........4 Wriddhiman Saha not out .............9 Ravidra Jadeja not..........................5 Extras: ........................ .................8 Total: (For 7 wkts)............. .......536 Bowling: Lakmal 21.2-2-00-0, Gamage 25.3-7-95 -2 Perera 31.1-0145-1, Sandakan 33.5-1-167-4, D de Silva 16-0-48-0.
SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS:
D Karunarate c Saha b Shami ........0 D Perera lbw R Jadeja .................42 D de Silva lbw I Sharma.................1 A Mathews batting.......................57 D Chandimal batting... ................25 Extras...............................................6 Total: (For 3 wkts).........................131 Bowling: M Shami 11-3-30-1, I sharma 10-4-441, R Jadeja 14.3-6-241. R Ashwin 9-3-28-0.
coach Ravi Shastri had also come out to intimate to the umpires about what he felt was right.
The Lankans who didn't want to field however came out to bat and Dimuth Karunaratne edged the very first delivery off Mohammed Shami to Wriddhiman Saha.
Dhananjaya de Silva was then trapped by Ishant to make it 14 for 2 before umpires called for tea.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma (65) and Kohli added 135 runs for the fifth wicket in the first session as Sri Lanka never looked like getting any wickets before Sandakan induced a bottom edge off Rohit at the stroke of lunch.
Rohit now has five consecutive scores of over 50 plus in his last five matches in the longest format.