India captain Virat Kohli on Friday achieved a huge Test cricket milestone when he went on to surpass former captain Dilip Vengsarkar in elite list. The right-handed batsman went on to cross Vengsarkar to climb to the 7th position in the list of players with most runs for India in the longest format. Kohli achieved the feat when he reached 78* during the course of his innings.
Vengsarkar, who played 116 Tests, scored 6,868 runs in his career. On the other hand, Kohli, who has played 81 Tests so far, has scored 6,878 runs so far in his career.
Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane carried on from where they had left on Day 1 and went on to go past the 100-run partnership. It was the 10th hundred-run stand between the two, and their 2nd between against South Africa in Test cricket. The duo also surpassed Rahul Dravid-Sourav Ganguly’s 96-run stand to become the fourth highest wicket stand for India against the Proteas in Test cricket for fourth wicket.
Apart from Kohli and Rahane, Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara also contributed with the bat for India. While the former scored a hundred in the Test, his 2nd in two consecutive Tests, Pujara went on to score a half century.
Mayank’s effort has drawn praises from different quarters and his teammate Cheteshwar Pujara reckoned the Karnataka batsman has learnt the art of conversion from the first-class cricket. Mayank and Pujara shared 138 runs for the second wicket before the latter was dismissed for a well-made 58.
“He (Mayank) is an experienced player who has scored a lot of runs in first-class cricket, which has helped him a lot. When it comes to the nervous 90s, he is someone who is fearless,” Pujara said after the day’s play.
“Mayank knows how to convert fifties into big scores. Once he goes past hundred, he can score heavily as we saw in the last game,” added Pujara.
