The partnership was finally broken at 605 after the duo had come close to bettering the century-old all-time best eighth-wicket of 243 between Australia’s M J Hartigan and C Hill of Australia set in 1908.
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His stats in this series are even more impressive, Kohli now averaging 137.75 after this century followed his match-winning 167 in the second Test at Visakhapatnam. He was dismissed on 235, his career best in Test cricket.
England veteran James Anderson is refusing to concede defeat just yet in what is nearly certain to be his last Test series in India.
England, who scored 400 in their first innings, must win at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium to keep the series alive going into the fifth Test in Chennai.
A draw will be no good to them and while their hopes in this match are not completely gone just yet, it would take an incredible effort to conjure up a victory from here.
The painful truth, though, is that England, who have won three tosses out of four, have had their chances to stay very much in the series, not least when Rashid dropped a hard return chance on Saturday when Kohli was on 68.
He was eventually caught out by Anderson from Chris Woakes.
But Kohli (147no) escaped a sharp caught-and-bowled chance on 68 to Adil Rashid shortly afterwards and duly added his outstanding hundred to that of Murali Vijay (136) – the latter’s second of the series too – as the hosts took a first-innings lead, reaching stumps 451 for seven.
On Sunday morning, the India skipper moved to 191 with a flicked four off James Anderson, in the same over he ran him down to the third man to move to 195.
But after England started their second innings with a deficit of 231, the Johannesburg-born batsman became the first man ever to follow-up a hundred in his first Test innings with a golden duck in his second.
Their eighth-wicket partnership blossomed to 241 runs, giving India a handsome lead and forcing England to crumble under the weight of a huge deficit. He was given out lbw to Rashid on 116 but managed to overturn the decision on review as replays suggested he got an inside edge before the ball struck his pad. But with four wickets standing, it’s a question of when rather than what on the final day.
It remains to be seen if that is a realistic ambition – but either way, Anderson is confident important lessons have been learned by several of England’s younger players on this trip.
Where there was pure joy for India, though, there was embarrassment for England and a captain in Cook who simply did not know where to turn on a fourth morning that began with his side 51 runs behind.
Bairstow continued to battle on at the other end.
While saying the eight-day break between Mohali and Mumbai was of great help for him to rethink and come back better, Vijay said he worked on the way he was handling the short-pitched stuff to which he has often fallen this series. Karun Nair, trapped lbw on review by Moeen, was the first to go.
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But without them, it is fair to say the advantage might easily have been theirs rather than India’s. “You get stuck in a rut, and it’s very hard to get out”.
