Sydney, Jan 8: Young opener Lokesh Rahul struck his maiden ton to help India reach 234 for two at tea on the third day of the fourth and final Test against Australia on Thursday.
At the break, Rahul was batting on 106 (256 balls, 12x4, 1x6) with skipper Virat Kohli (67 batting, 121 balls, 11x4) giving him company as the two batsmen put on 137 unbeaten runs for the third wicket.
India still trail by 338 runs after Australia had declared their innings closed at 572 for 7 in their first innings.
The 22-year-old Rahul, playing in only his second Test match, was dropped by Australian captain Steven Smith when on 46 in the morning session at the SCG.
Post-lunch, Rahul and Kohli looked to bat for long with the ball not doing much and the pitch still an easy one to bat on. And they were quite successful in doing as the runs started flowing after the dry morning session.
India had only scored 51 runs in two hours’ play before lunch, but they made amends as 45 runs came in the first hour and then another 67 runs in the next hour until tea as normalcy was restored.
Much of this could be attributed to Kohli’s batting, as he raced along to yet another half-century in this series, following his- three hundreds already. He got there in the 80th over of the innings, off 108 balls.
Kohli was lucky to be still at the crease though with Steven Smith (0/12) dropping a second catch in the day, this time at second slip off Mitchell Starc (1/50) in the 83rd over, just after the second new ball had been taken.
Kohli was batting on 59 then and happily went to the break given this life. Perhaps his joy was emboldened with the fact that the young opener Rahul overcame his horrific debut Test in Melbourne to achieve a milestone. Rahul got there in 85th over, the last before tea, off 253 balls.
Earlier, India had fought hard on their way to lunch with runs trickling in.
The morning began with Rohit Sharma (53 off 133 balls) and Rahul at the crease as India started off from their overnight score of 71/1. They needed to bat for time as well as keep the runs ticking.
While they were successful at the first part, runs came in a trickle as the Australian bowling attack bowled with patience on an easy pitch. They held a tight line and length and gave very little for the Indian batsmen to play against.
Only 19 runs came off the first hour of play which saw 15 overs bowled. Only three boundaries came in that run of play, two off the bat of Rahul and one from Rohit. However, if the first hour was a little dull, there were many interesting things waiting to happen in the second part of this morning session.
It started with Nathan Lyon’s (1/39) introduction into the attack as he got the ball to bounce and turn, using the rough marks to his advantage. In the 44th over, he had a close shout for a catch against Rahul (on 42 then) turned down, despite the replays showing that the batsman might have had a feather—nick to Joe Burns at short leg. It did not matter much as he got Rohit on the fourth delivery of that over.
It was the first ball Rohit faced off the spinner and he went for an expansive sweep, only to get a bottom—edge onto his stumps. The batsman walked off dejected, having only reached his second Test fifty, off 132 balls in the previous over bowled by Ryan Harris (0/30).
It brought Kohli to the crease and was immediately beaten by Lyon off the first ball. The batsman nearly set off for a run and the non-striker, Rahul (still on 42) came half-way down the crease only to be sent back. It was a great run—out chance for Australia but substitute fielder Pat Cummins threw to the wrong end.
Then Rahul (on 46 then) had a third chance against him go down as he top—edged Shane Watson (0/10) in the 53rd over, only for Steve Smith to run back from first slip but drop the skier as he was distracted by the spidercam hovering over him.
The opener brushed it all off and then struck a boundary in the next over to reach his maiden Test fifty, off 161 balls, in only his second match.
At the other end, Kohli also became the second Indian batsman to go past 500 runs in a Test series against Australia following in the footsteps of Rahul Dravid who accumulated 619 runs on the 2003-04 tour.
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