India cricketer Virat Kohli celebrates after batting 200 runs during day two of the cricket test match between West Indies and India July 22, 2016 at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in St John’s, Antigua. Kohli played Roston Chase (0-57) for a simple single to midwicket and became the first Indian skipper to score a Test doubled hundred overseas since 1932.
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St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda: Captain Virat Kohli hit his maiden test double century and anchored India to 404-4 at lunch on the second day of the first test against West Indies on Friday.
Having opted to go into the match without uncapped fast-medium bowler Miguel Cummins, the only other pace threat available in the West Indies pre-match squad of 13, it was left to Holder, fellow medium-pacer Carlos Brathwaite and Chase to do the bulk of the early work in support of Gabriel before Bishoo got into his work after lunch.
Kohli’s dismissal slammed the brakes on India’s scoring rate, and it was mostly the Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha show of defiance thereafter. Marlon Samuels was the fielder at cover, Jason Holder at mid-off, but both the fielders just turned their backs to the ball and walked away. The duo ambled along, and Ashwin soon brought up the half-century stand, with carve past backward point off Kraigg Brathwaite. “Ashwin was on 43 a href=”/topic/azhar” *Azharduddin’s long-standing record of 192 against New Zealand scored in February 1990. The tactic had kept India’s top order quiet in the first session of the match, but Kohli didn’t wait for too long before taking a calculated risk, executing it so well it didn’t look like a risk.
Among the West Indies bowlers, leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo was the most successful with figures of 3/131 from 35 overs. In the process, he became the first Indian captain to ever score a double ton overseas. Kohli went past his previous highest Test score of 169 (against Australia) with a four off Bishoo and closed in on his double hundred. The duo batted the entire first session, extending their fifth-wicket stand to 168 runs as the West Indies failed to pick up a wicket in 29 overs. Kohli, who resumed at 143, quickly got to his 150 and continued to assert himself on the opposition. A couple more delightful drives took him to 190.
In the morning, India were subjected to some testing spells in the first session after they had won the toss and elected to bat.
The Indian captain, according to CricketNext website, also crossed the 3000-run mark in his 42nd Test.
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India declared its innings after registering its highest score of 566 declared on the Caribbean soil. The runs came off easily, and they brought up the 450-mark in the 139th over.
