The Indian team didn’t waste any time in calling the shots on their tour of the Caribbean. At the end of the first day’s play of the opening Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua, India found themselves at a strong 302-4.
The Quint takes a look at some of the important numbers from Day 1:
1. Kohli’s Streak at The Coin Toss
Virat Kohli had won all four coin tosses in India’s most-recent Test series against South Africa. On that occasion, being the home captain, Kohli would spin the coin, and his counterpart would call. The South African captain Hashim Amla called wrong in all four matches.
On Thursday though, Kohli was at the calling end, and he called right, winning his fifth toss in a row.
2. Partnership Between the Delhi lads
For most part of the morning session, the Indian batsmen took a cautious – Test match like – approach. The batsmen played well within themselves and did not take too many chances.
But when Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli got together at the start of the second session, they decided they had seen enough about the conditions and put the pressure of the opposition. India were 74-2 at one stage, with an overall scoring rate of 2.67. But the two Delhi lads showed plenty of intent in the partnership between them, and India were up and away; Dhawan and Kohli added 105 runs – the first century partnership for the 3rd wicket in Test matches at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium – and they scored the runs at a healthy 3.86 runs per over.
3. Shikhar Dhawan Answers Questions on Opener’s Slot
Heading into the first Test, there were questions if India were right in picking Shikhar Dhawan to partner Murali Vijay. The questions were quite justified too, for Dhawan had only scored a total of 150 runs in 7 innings in the previous Test series against South Africa. In contrast, KL Rahul – the third opener in the Indian squad – had impressed in whatever opportunities he had got in India colours and had even made a mark in the Indian Premier League Season IX.
On Thursday though, Dhawan put all the criticism to rest with an 84-run inning. It wasn’t the most fluent knock from the left-hander, but he made sure he was out there in the middle and scored the runs. A Test century was there for the taking, but he was dismissed LBW by Devendra Bishoo on the stroke of tea. Dhawan’s 84 was the second-highest score by an Indian left-hander in Tests in the Caribbean.
4. Story of the Day – Virat Kohli’s Century
The story of the opening day was undoubtedly the century by Indian Test captain Virat Kohli.
By the time the players walked back at the end of the first day’s play, the Indian skipper had accumulated 143 runs – most of them through some fluent drives through the off-side. Here are a few numbers associated with Virat’s knock on Thursday:
- When on 6, he reached the 3000 Test runs mark, becoming the 19th Indian cricketer to reach the milestone.
- His century was his 12th in Test cricket – nine of which have been in overseas Test matches.
- His century was his 5th as India Test captain. Incidentally, all 5 centuries have been in overseas Tests. With his unbeaten 143 on Thursday, he equalled the record of most overseas Test centuries by an Indian captain; Mohammad Azharuddin had scored 5 overseas Test centuries as captain.
- When on 114, Virat Kohli got to 1000 Test runs as captain. He became the joint second-quickest among Indian captains to score 1000 runs in Test cricket.
Kohli’s 143 was a rare instance
of an Indian captain scoring a century in the very first innings of an overseas
Test series. Such a feat had been accomplished only twice previously in the
history of Indian cricket.
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