Virat Kohli has scored plenty more sublime and challenging centuries across his Test career, but few if any can have been more satisfying.
The Indian veteran’s century in Ahmedabad, ending a 1205-day wait for his 28th Test ton dating back to November 2019, was the centrepiece as the hosts recorded a mammoth 571, and gives them an outside chance of a 3-1 series win over Australia with one day left for the series.
That fate, however, will rest with the pitch, which has shown no signs of deteriorating throughout the Test and continues to punish bowlers as mercilessly as the first three surfaces of the series did to the batters.
With just 20 wickets falling across the first four days, India’s 88-run first innings lead will count for nought unless the pitch begins to break up on the fifth day, though with Usman Khawaja sustaining a leg injury and unable to open the batting in the final six overs of the day – a task then given to nightwatchman Matt Kuhnemann – Australia will be vulnerable should the Indian spinners conjure any hitherto unseen demons from the deck.
Kuhnemann would have to survive a pair of near misses before the day was out, an outside edge off Ravichandran Ashwin just eluding the gloves of KS Bharat and a short ball from Mohammed Shami very nearly steered to short leg in the final over of the day.
Managing just six wickets for the day, and only bowling India out thanks to Shreyas Iyer’s unavailability after going for scans on a lower back issue, it was another afternoon of toil for the Australian attack in searing heat.
Nathan Lyon sent down 65 overs, the most he has ever bowled in a Test innings, and received some late reward for effort with the wickets of Bharat (44) and a slogging Ashwin (7).
Todd Murphy (3/113 off 45.5 overs) also bowled a marathon stint, while Kuhnemann (1/94 off 25) and Mitchell Starc (1/97 off 22) were forced to toil particularly hard. But with any pace off the deck continually treated with disdain by the hosts, Steve Smith found himself turning to spin on most occasions to limit the damage.
But it was a day on which batters needed to practically give their wicket away to fall, as Ravindra Jadeja did when, after crawling to 28 off 84 balls, attempted to loft Murphy down the ground but only succeeded in chipping him straight to Khawaja at mid-on.
Any hopes the wicket would expose India’s middle order quickly evaporated as Bharat joined Kohli at the crease. The pair took India past lunch, then into the record books, the team becoming the first ever to start a Test innings with five consecutive 50-run partnerships.
Watchful at first but later explosive, taking 78 balls to reach 26 before smacking the expensive Green for consecutive sixes, the first over mid-wicket and the second to fine leg. Together with a fierce cut for four, the over would cost 21.
Bharat, though, was unable to convert the onslaught into a maiden Test half-century, an inside edge off Lyon pouched by Peter Handscomb at short leg.
With Axar Patel for company now, Kohli remained sedate; his century, compiled off 241 balls, reached with a trademark flick off his pads in front of square. The celebration was more relief than jubilation, as the biggest monkey in world cricket was at last removed from the veteran’s back.
Virat Kohli of India celebrates after scoring his century. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
While Kohli resisted the temptation to raise his run rate as India closed in on Australia’s first innings 480, Patel had no such reservations.
Showing once again the broad array of strokes that have brought him remarkable success with the bat (if not with the ball) thus far this series, the all-rounder took on the deep fielders frequently and pierced gaps when he wasn’t.
One of the former, a lofted six over long-off, had an unintended extra benefit for India; a leaping Khawaja appeared to turn an ankle leaping to try and reel the ball in, soon departing the field with the injury serious enough to prevent him from opening the batting.
And still Kohli marched on. Only the loosest of balls were sent to the boundary, with attacking Patel’s job; this was pure sadism from the veteran. Like Steve Smith, the Indian veteran is one who could and happily would bat for five days if required, with the thrill of getting to face the next ball almost equal to the thrill of dispatching it.
Kohli reached his 150 before finally beginning to accelerate; 39 runs were taken off the last seven overs before tea, bringing India a 39-run first innings lead. With Patel reaching his third half-century of the series, a final-session onslaught against an exhausted attack appeared on the cards.
And so it would prove: Patel would fall for 79 chopping on an attempted mow off Starc, but not before mowing Kuhnemann twice over mid-wicket.
Ashwin came in keen for a good time and not a long time, slog-sweeping Lyon to Kuhnemann in the deep for 7; but the focus now was on runs, not wickets.
As if to prove it, an ambitious second run from Kohli to retain the strike left Umesh Yadav high and dry, the tailender caught well short by a Handscomb direct hit from the deep – though in truth, he’d still have been well out even if Murphy had needed to collect the ball and remove the bails.
Finally, it was Kohli’s turn to fall; on 186, he forewent a double-century for the cause, caught in the deep off Murphy to spark another wave of applause from an Ahmedabad crowd that, despite the dullness of the day, certainly got what they had hoped for.
With still time for six overs left in the day, Head and Kuhnemann safely, if not entirely comfortably, negotiated Ashwin and Jadeja until stumps; but with their chances of victory evaporated in the Indian sun, and with it hopes of a drawn series, the very best the visitors can hope for is to finish the tour with a grinding draw.
Lukestar
Roar Rookie
The sound of crickets from selectors.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Taking wickets elsewhere
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
And, omenly, that was his top score.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
The last ⅓ of "The Meaning" (Supertramp) You're holding the world in the palm of your hand What you're tellin' your children you don't understand If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is Meaning is, meaning is, meaning is Oh you better beware And you'd better get, and you'd better get light in your head And you'd better get, and you'd better get peace in your bed If you wanna get, if you wanna get high Just look at the madness that glows in your eyes You're frightened your children will steal your disguise If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the answer is If you know what the answer is If you know what the answer is If you know what the answer is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is If you know what the meaning is
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Aw, schucks, you say the nicest things.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
You can call me narky or anything else you like, but I won't be engaging with you on any cricket topic. Liking some of my comments won't change that either.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Why so narky? I've never played the man on here and not definitely not you! Is it because your subjective "these runs count and and these runs don't" shtick is as flawed as any of the other stat data that have currency?
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Take a hint mate.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
In the year 818AD, I was with Rus as we invaded the northern coast of Anatolia.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I think there is an element of subjectivity in your analysis of a team’s performances and how the individual performances contribute. The subjectivity, in your treatise, is the equivalent of the crudity used in the raw averages of batsmen / batswomen. ——- Take the Green century. It was, at it’s very basic, a great thing for him to do personally. He is building his confidence in a situation and that can be career affirming for him and, in turn, the team.
nics
Roar Rookie
I am equally confident that Agar can, if selected, make a similar impact approximately 345 years after his last Test match.
Targa
Roar Rookie
King Kohli and King Kane.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
It’s quite legitimate to consider the ultimate match result, as long as you’re not looking at it in isolation, but rather the overall picture. By doing so, you’re applying retrospect, rather than hindsight. Sometimes, decent touring batting line-ups implode on a road whether batting first or second. An example of the former was the West Indies in Adelaide in 1996-97, an example of the latter, Pakistan the previous summer in Brisbane. However, this is not the norm with two relatively evenly matched teams. It’s easy to resort to conjecture such as “What if Green had failed coming in at 4 for 180?” But that can be contended with “Well, let’s instead give him a par 40, and with Usman already 80 or 90 by that stage anyway, let’s give him, under the circumstances, a par even 100. This would see Australia totalling around 325, and hence the deficit would be 246 (all else being equal), and Australia would have to survive 145 overs, rather than 96. This would indeed be a lost cause, but it also misses a very important point …. Forgetting exceptional situations cited in the 2nd paragraph above, with relatively evenly matched teams doing battle on a road throughout the five days, in that very first innings of the match, even if the fielding team manages to have the side batting first 4 down for less than 200, the odds of them slicing all the way through their opposition line-up without at least one significant partnership somewhere are extremely minimal. Returning to the type of conjecture represented in the 3rd paragraph above, we can just as easily take it one step further and say that Carey’s nature as a batsman, like so many keepers down the ages, is to get most of his significant scores when the team actually needs them. I didn’t see the shot he played, but it was of little consequence. When he went in, runs from him personally were no longer critical. Now … whether that inevitable big partnership involves Usman and Green, Usman and Carey, or even Green and Carey, the possibility of anything other than a drawn match, even by this early point, is just one such inevitable partnership away from oblivion.
The Bush
Roar Guru
No, you're failing to understand, or refusing to consider, how the game actually works. You don't go out in the arvo on the first day, with your team four for less than 200 and not feel under real pressure against one of the best teams in the world. So to score a century in those circumstances is not 'meaningless'. It might not have the meaning of a fourth-innings century that leads to a win or whatever, but that doesn't mean it is meaningless. You're too black and white in implementing your formula when assessing performances. You place too much emphasis on the final outcome, when the players don't know this until a certain point (if ever).
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
I've forewent far too many fours in me life. But when they did go for four it went through the slips.
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
That's what Frederick The Flintoff thought back in Adelaide. Spot on re the spinners. That was the most balls Nathan has faced in a test innings. Todd Man Murphy's great dig the may go down as the most meaningful meaningless innings since Rowdy Mallett got 43 not out on Test debut.
Clear as mud
Guest
Really we needed 550 by end day 2 and we only got as close as we did as our spinners wagged just as the Roar said it didn’t matter if they did
Tempo
Roar Rookie
I do tend to think Inglis has a higher ceiling as a player than Carey. That said, Carey has done well up until this tour and his keeping has really impressed me this series. How he bounces back (or otherwise) in England will be interesting. We need good contributions from him if we're to win over there.
The Bush
Roar Guru
I get what you're saying Tempo, though Carey's dismissal seemed to me to be muddled team strategy - as in it was time to up the ante. If it wasn't, then as you say, he made a mistake and you can't afford that against good opponents like India. Carey's kept well, but I'm still not convinced he's the long term answer behind the stumps - if his batting doesn't hold up in England, I think he could be under real pressure next summer.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Unfortunately my personal life prevented me from watching anything after the first two days, so I've only been following it a little. As you say jameswm, no point talking about batting failures when we let them score nearly 600 I guess. Was our 'mistake' then to play the three spinners again? Would someone like Boland have helped us restrict them far better? I feel a little for the selectors there, my understanding is that traditionally this ground is a spinners paradise (in the sense that almost all the wickets in recent years have been taken by spinners)?