Virat Kohli and bowlers hand India unassailable 2-0 lead in series

Virat Kohli scored a recordbreaking double hundred which was his career best score in the games longest format while the bowlers fired in unison as an allround India outmuscled South Africa in every department to win the second Test by an innings and 137 runs on Day 4 here on Sunday to take an unassailable 20 lead in the threematch seriesIndia outclassed SouthAfrica by an innings and 137 runs in the secondTest of the threematch rubber to clinch the Freedom Trophy with a contest to goPhoto IANS pictwittercomkRtDj9gFFAmdash IANS Tweets ians_india October 13 2019India thus recorded their 11th consecutive Test series win at home the most by any side eclipsing Australia who had held the record with 10 straight series wins in their own backyard as Kohli and Co kicked off their home leg of the World Test Championship with a bangThe Proteas were skittled out for 189 after being asked to followon as they were all out for 275 at the end of Day 3 replying to Indias mammoth 6015 in the first essayComing into this game with a 10 lead India were never in any sort of trouble from Day 1 Mayank Agarwal 108 scored a second successive Test hundred as Cheteshwar Pujara 58 vicecaptain Ajinkya Rahane 59 and Ravindra Jadeja 91 scored delectable half centuriesJadeja was unfortunate to miss out on a hundred as he struck a 225run partnership with Kohli for the fifth wicket But it was the Indian captain who virtually took the game away from a South Africa side still in transition after the retirements of AB de Villiers and Hashim AmlaKohli amassed 254 runs from 336 balls with the help of 33 fours in a marathon inning that lasted nearly eight hours and broke a slew of records as he became the Indian batsman with the most number of double tons to his name surpassing Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag who both had scored six double tonsIn their reply South Africa were ripped apart by Ravichandran Ashwin who returned best figures of 469 while Umesh Yadav making a comeback into the playing XI and included in the series in place of injured Jasprit Bumrah took three wicketsLeft arm spinner Keshav Maharaj topscored with 72 and along with Vernon Philander 44 not out fought hard in the end but it was too little too late Skipper Faf du Plessis also scored 64 Asked to follow on Maharaj 22 and Philander 37 dug deep and proved hard to beat till tea on Day 4But once Umesh had Philander caught behind after tea it all fell apart as the pacer returned impressive figures of 322 with Jadeja also picking up three wickets as Ashwin nabbed two In the second dig opener Dean Elgar topscored for South Africa with 48It was also a fantastic Test for wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha who took two brilliant catches in both innings to remove Theunis De Bruyn on both occasions off Umesh On Day 3 Saha rated as one of the best stumpers in the world flew to his right to grab the ball with both hands right in front of first slip to complete a stunning catch and he repeated his heroics in the morning session on Sunday as the 34year old took a acrobatic onehanded diving catch to leave his teammates awedIt was Kohli though who continued to shatter record books The ace batsman arguably one of the best in all three formats hadnt scored a century this year but atoned for his dip with a knock of sheer brilliance During the course of his innings Kohli also went past Bradman to become the player with the most 150plus scores as Test captain While Bradman had achieved the feat eight times in his career Kohli has now done it nine times so farHe is also the only Indian to smash 40 hundreds in international cricket as captain and is now just two tons away from surpassing Pontings tally of 41 Test tons as captain with the most hundreds in international cricket He also surpassed Dilip Vengsarkars tally of 6868 runs to climb to the seventh position in the list of players with the most runs for India in the longest format of the gameKohli also rolled his arms and bowled the first over after tea on Day 4 to sum up Indias mood and utter dominance in their own lair Both the sides will next meet for the final time in the rubber in Ranchi for the third Test starting October 19Brief scores 1st innings India 6015d Virat Kohli 254 not out Mayank Agarwal 108 Ravindra Jadeja 91 Ajinkya Rahane 59 Cheteshwar Pujara 58 Kagiso Rabada 393 South Africa 275 Keshav Maharaj 72 Faf du Plessis 64 Vernon Philander 44 not out R Ashwin 469 Umesh Yadav 337 Following on South Africa 189 Dean Elgar 48 Temba Bavuma 38 Umesh Yadav 322 Ravindra Jadeja 352Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereAlso download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates