The Chennai Test match between India and England hangs in the balance. In reply to England’s first innings total of 477, India ended the third day at 391-4. The highlight of the third day’s play was KL Rahul’s magnificently compiled 199, his 152-run partnership with Parthiv Patel and subsequently his 161-run partnership with Karun Nair.
India, 60 for no loss at the start of the day’s play, began proceedings on fourth gear. While the average scoring rate of the first two days read 3.03, the Indian openers scored at a rate of 4.62 runs per over in the first hour before drinks, catching the fielding side unawares.
Both batsmen brought up their respective half-centuries in the first hour. Rahul was the first to race to the milestone, while Parthiv got to his half-century a little later. The pair raised the century partnership – India’s first three-figure opening partnership since June 2015.
Both batsmen contributed to the partnership in almost even proportions and extended their association to 152 – making it India’s highest opening partnership in home Test matches against England.
With less than thirty minutes to go for the lunch interval, England separated the opening pair, when against the run of play Parthiv Patel miscued a delivery to Jos Buttler at cover. The Indian wicketkeeper-batsman scored 71 – his career-best score.
The left-hander’s performance with the bat needs to be applauded, for his 42-overs vigil at the crease came immediately at the back of keeping wickets for nearly 158 overs.
While Parthiv missed a golden opportunity to score his first Test hundred, Rahul motored on and brought up his fourth Test century. In Test matches since 2015, specifically among the opening batsmen, only Alastair Cook and David Warner have posted more three figure scores than Rahul has in his 11 Test appearances.
The batsman from Karnataka didn’t put a foot wrong in this innings – until his eventual dismissal. Rahul’s temperament, choice of strokes – ranging from the lofted strokes, the fluent drives, the sweeps or the reverse sweeps, or his footwork – were top draw.
Having done all the hard work and with a double century there for the taking, Rahul played one rare false stroke – he threw his bat at the widest ball bowled to him – didn’t have enough power on the stroke and only managed to spoon the ball to the man at point.
Rahul missed out on a double century by the narrowest of margins – one run – and in the process became one of nine players in Test history to be dismissed on 199. Among Indian batsmen, only Mohammad Azharuddin had been dismissed on 199 previously.
No words can do justice in explaining how brilliant Rahul was. For an opening batsman to have been on the field for most part of England’s innings and then bat for nearly 103 overs speaks volumes of his fitness and his ability to concentrate and play long innings.
What was also impressive was Rahul’s ability to adjust according to the situation. With only 20 overs to bat out on the second day, Rahul – eyes set on a long haul – batted cautiously, scoring his runs at the strike-rate of 44.1.
But on Sunday, he batted freely in the first two sessions, and then batted in cruise mode in the final session – before that little bit of indiscretion brought about his unfortunate dismissal.
The enduring images from the day’s play will be of Virat Kohli’s reactions when Rahul got to his century and thereafter his disappointment when he missed the double hundred.
Kohli celebrated Rahul reaching the milestone like he had reached his own hundred; alert to the opportunity of a second run – courtesy an overthrow – Kohli took off first and punched the air even before Rahul himself did the kiss-the-badge, fist-pump or the bat-raise.
The genuine happiness on skipper Kohli’s face told one a lot about the spirit in the team. Later in the evening, the disappointment on Kohli’s face when Rahul was dismissed on 199 told one a lot about the bonding and the camaraderie within this bunch of cricketers.
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