In Stats: 6 Records Virat Kohli Set With His Double Ton in Delhi
Virat Kohli enthralled the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium with another sublime batting performance.
All those individuals who had braved the cold and the poor air conditions in Delhi to be at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday had plenty of reasons to cheer and celebrate. Virat Kohli – one of their own – enthralled them with a sublime batting performance, something the Indian captain appears to have made a habit in recent times. Virat Kohli’s 243 and Rohit Sharma’s fluent 65 held Team India – 371-4 overnight – to 536-7, at which point the captain declared his team’s innings closed.
Virat Kohli continued to bat with the fluency of day one and added to his overnight score of 156; he brought up his double hundred just past the drinks break in the morning session. By reaching the 200-run mark, he became the first captain in the 141 years history of Test cricket to score six double centuries.
By reaching the 200-run mark at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday, Virat also drew level with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag for the most double hundreds scored by Indian batsmen in Test cricket. While Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar scored their sixth double hundreds in their respective 72nd and 171st Test matches, Virat has been able to reach there in just his 63rd Test match.
Virat continued to amass the runs even after reaching the 200-run milestone; when on 234, he had accumulated 1,000 Test runs in the year 2017 – becoming the first Indian captain to do so in successive years.
A little later, he rewrote the record for the highest score by an Indian captain in Test cricket, bettering his own performance. Against England in Mumbai in 2016, Virat had scored 235; on Sunday he bettered that and would go on to make 243 – his highest score in Test cricket – before he was eventually dismissed leg before wicket by left-arm wrist spinner Lakshan Sandakan.
Virat’s effort this weekend came at the back of the 213 he scored in the second Test match against Sri Lanka in Nagpur. He joined an elite club of only four other Test captains who had scored double hundreds in consecutive Test matches.
Virat’s 243 at the Feroz Shah Kotla also rewrote the record for the highest score by an Indian batsman batting on his home ground; Virat’s effort obliterated the previous record held by Vinod Kambli, set when he scored 224 against England at the Wankhede Stadium in 1993.
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