India's stand-in skipper Virat Kohli overcame a bouncer to slam a defiant century to lead India's solid reply on day three of the first Test against Australia at Adelaide. Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane also hit a fifty each. Catch all the live updates of day four here: (Live Scorecard | Live Updates )
Rohit Sharma in action on the third day of Adelaide Test.
© AFP
India gave a perfect reply to Australia, who after declaring at 517 for seven decided to make full use of the early morning conditions by having a crack at the young Indian batting line-up. Cheteshwar Pujara (73), Ajinkya Rahane (62) and Murali Vijay (53) were solid in their approach but they wasted their good starts and failed to emulate Australia's three first-innings centurions -- Steve Smith (162 not out), David Warner (145) and Michael Clarke (128).
India ended the day at 369 for five with Rohit Sharma (33*) and Wriddhiman Saha (1*) at the crease. The visitors are still trailing by 148 runs in their first innings.
Virat Kohli became the fourth Indian after Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar and Dilip Vengsarkar to score a hundred on Test captaincy debut. But Mitchell Johnson's bouncer that hit Kohli on the helmet in the first ball he faced was the talking point of the day. Bowling bouncers has become a sensitive issue following the death of Australian Test batsman Phillip Hughes, after he was fatally struck in the head by a short-pitched delivery in a domestic game late last month.
Kohli joined an elite league with a hundred on captaincy debut.
© AFP
Fortunately, all was well and Kohli went on to score a fighting 115 off 184 balls and his determination and character left former India captain Gavaskar awestruck.
Kohli is captaining India in the absence of MS Dhoni, who is recovering from a hairline fracture of his thumb and is expected to resume his post for next week's second Test in Brisbane.
Mumbai pace spearhead Dhawal Kulkarni is being sent to Australia on an urgent basis as replacement for injured Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is not part of the first Test.
0 comments:
Post a Comment