India’s Virat Kohli raises his bat after scoring one hundred and fifty runs during the fourth day of the fourth cricket Test match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad, India on Sunday, March 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)
Kohli ended the long wait for a ton in the longest format of the game by scoring 186 in India’s 571 as the fourth Test entered the fifth day with Australia needing two sessions of good batting to pull off a draw.
Australia wicket-keeper Alex Carey says Virat Kohli is not the type to pass up an opportunity to score a ‘daddy century’ on a good batting pitch and on Sunday he showed how to do it.
Kohli scored 186 in India’s 571 as the fourth Test entered the fifth day with Australia needing two sessions of good batting to pull out a draw.
Read this also Akshar Patel: India’s MVP in the Border Gavaskar Trophy
“No wonder, he (Kohli) got on a good batting track and grew up and showed how to really do it. He is a class player and he didn’t really give us a chance.
We knew that Virat would be difficult to bowl to. “We were able to contain him as much as we could and try to get wickets around him,” Carey said.
The keeper said it was a known fact to expect the crowd to rally behind Kohli and he was ready to go above the decibel level of the noise.
“Whenever you come into India and Virat’s next innings or bat, you know it’s going to be noisy and he played really well today. But I thought we held up really well. Carey, in a very roundabout way, made it clear that there was no question of an Australian victory.
“Obviously it’s going to be a big challenge,” he said, adding, “We’ll be paying a lot of attention to that first hour of cricket and then we’ll see how it unfolds.” India not having the services of Shreyas Iyer was a big loss and the visitors were happy to reduce the lead to under 100 (91).
“I thought we did really well today, I think, reduce the lead. Obviously, they didn’t have Shreyas (he walked off the field for the scan and didn’t come back) batting, So we were able to change the innings which was good later in the day.
Kuhnman is here to open
Matthew Kuhnmann, who bowled 25 overs off the break during India’s first innings, came to the opening as the Australian team manager informed that regular opener Usman Khawaja had injured his calf and could not come to bat.
“A left-handed Queenslander like Uzzi (Khwaja),” Carey joked.
‘ He just put his hands up and did a great job. Perhaps it was not his day for the ball. But, yes, everyone will surely come to raise their hands to him tonight.
“It’s a tough job to go out and face that new ball against the Indian spinners, so they did a great job with Travis (Head) but of course the night-watchman came into the game with 20 minutes to go, so Send them out.’ ,
get the latest cricket news Here
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)