India captain Virat Kohli drives his way into the record books with his 10th international ton for 2017
India skipper Virat Kohli reacts while batting on the third day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur yesterday. Kohli ended up scoring 213. Pic/AFP
Possessing more records to his name than a gramophone company, Virat Kohli added more to the list here yesterday as he pummeled a hapless Sri Lanka en route to a fifth double century. What stood out in the knock of 213 - a record 10 international hundreds by a captain in a year, surpassing Ricky Ponting (2005, 2006) and Graeme Smith's (2005) nine - was not so much the weight of runs but the rate at which they were scored, given that most before him had merely meandered in the vicinity of 50 runs per 100 balls. Kohli struck at nearly 80.
India skipper Virat Kohli reacts while batting on the third day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur yesterday. Kohli ended up scoring 213. Pic/AFP
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"Overall, I think it was a tough pitch where as a batsman you may not get out but it was difficult to score runs. Virat is the kind of player who performs well in all the formats and the way he started off, I don't think someone else could have started the same way. I think it's his confidence and the way he's been batting in the last two-three years. Any other batsman would have struggled to score at such a strike-rate," Cheteshwar Pujara said about the skipper's knock.
Also Read: Virat Kohli records most centuries in a year by a captain
Kohli's appetite for runs across formats is indeed unparalleled. Over the last two years, he has averaged over 67 in International T20s, 81.44 in ODIs and over 70 in Tests. Here in Nagpur, he enthralled a large Sunday crowd with India firmly in the box seat, and an India win a foregone conclusion. Kohli has scored the most number of centuries by an Indian captain - 12. Sunil Gavaskar is second with 11.
Through yesterday's double century, Kohli equalled West Indian Brian Lara's record for most double centuries as captain. Such was his dominance that off the 87 runs added by Pujara and him in the morning, Kohli smashed 64 in 83 balls. He maintained the tempo throughout, even as India lost Pujara for a tenacious 143, followed by Mumbai's Ajinkya Rahane for two - his third successive failure.
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