Virat Kohli entered record books once again when he came out to bat in the third Test against South Africa. Kohli scored a half-century after being dropped twice. Kohli steadied the ship after two quick wickets on a vicious grassy pitch at Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. At times he hit the ball with a few classy cover drives and on other occasions, he just swung his bat at the ball wildly and threw away his wicket.
Kohli scored 54 runs off 106 balls in the first innings but still ended up entering the record books. He surpassed former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid’s record of most fifty-plus scores by Indian captains in international cricket. Here are the top four batsmen on the list –
MS Dhoni (82)
Mohammed Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly (59)
Virat Kohli (42)
Rahul Dravid (41)
He also became the first Asian skipper to score two fifty-plus scores in South Africa in a Test series. He became the second Asian skipper to score 200-plus runs in a Test series in South Africa; the first Indian batsman to do so in a Test series was Sachin Tendulkar who did it in 1996.
His 84-run partnership for the third wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara entered the record books as well. Kohli-Pujara equalled Dravid and Sourav Ganguly’s tally of most 50-plus partnerships on the South African soil. The duo has shared three 50-plus partnerships till now.
The 29-year-old was dropped for 11 and 32 by Vernon Philander and AB de Villiers off Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander’s bowling respectively. Even after getting dropped twice, he could not make the most of the opportunity and missed out on scoring his second Test century on the trot on the South African soil.
At the end, it was De Villiers who caught hold of the ball which Kohli edged. Kohli was going for a drive on a delivery which was pitched way outside the off-stump. Lungisani Ngidi got the wicket of Kohli in consecutive innings.
