Virat Kohli plays a defensive shot during the fourth day of the fourth cricket test match between India and Australia in Ahmedabad on March 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP
Virat Kohli scored his first Test hundred after a gap of more than three years as India reached 472 for five at tea on day four of the fourth and final Test here on Sunday.
At the break, Kohli was batting on 135 and had Axar Patel (38 batting, 75 balls) for company.
For the 15,000 odd people present at Motera, it was a Sunday to remember as Kohli guided Nathan Lyon towards mid-wicket to complete his first Test hundred since November 2019. The hundred, his 75th in international cricket, came off 241 balls.
India are now eight runs behind Australia’s first innings score of 480.
Kohli’s 291-ball innings picked up pace after he reached the milestone. In the first session, Kohli didn’t hit a single boundary.
He also got a lot of support at the other end while adding 84 for the fifth wicket with Kona Bharat (44 off 88 balls) and another 63 with in-form Axar. The left-arm spinner has now compiled more than 200 runs in this series.
All partnerships for the first six wickets was worth more than 50 runs.
After scoring 73 runs in the morning, India upped the tempo in the post lunch session.
Bharat, who has had a dreadful run with the bat, looked impressive as he pulled and hooked Cameron Green for a couple of sixes when he tried bouncing the batter from around the wicket.
He was out to a bat-pad catch at short-leg off Nathan Lyon’s bowling and missed out on what could have been a confidence boosting half-century.
But once Bharat was out, Kohli hit a flurry of boundaries and also had Axar going after the bowling.
The pitch hasn’t been easy for scoring with only 73 runs scored off 32 overs in the morning session. Bharat, in fact, played the best shot of the morning, a slog sweep over cow corner off Nathan Lyon for a six.
The only wicket that India lost during the session was of Ravindra Jadeja (28 off 84 balls), who failed to clear Usman Khawaja at mid-on off Todd Murphy (2/86 in 38 overs).
Kohli has put his head down during his knock and it did allow the Australians to control the proceedings on a slow deck. The only time he got closest to hitting a boundary was a flick through mid-wicket off Cameron Green but Mitchell Starc cut it down to three runs.
He was then happy getting the occasional single and double to keep the scoreboard moving.
Bharat did look way more confident on a flat track and was more assured in his defence.
He put a big stride forward to negate the little bit of turn that was on offer for the Australian spinners.
The only one who got a couple of deliveries to break back sharply was Lyon (2/124 in 58 overs).
Scoreboard
Australia 1st Innings: 480 in 167.2 overs.
India 1st Innings: (Overnight 289/3; 99 overs) Rohit Sharma c Labuschagne b Kuhnemann 35 Shubman Gill lbw 128 Cheteshwar Pujara lbw Murphy 42 Virat Kohli batting 135 Ravindra Jadeja c Khawaja b Murphy 28 Srikar Bharat c Handscomb b Lyon 44 Axar Patel batting 38
Extras: (B-14, LB-4, NB-4) 22
Total: (For five wickets in 158 overs) 472
Fall of Wickets: 1-74, 2-187, 3-245, 4-309, 5-393.
Bowling: Mitchell Starc 20-3-90-0, Cameron Green 16-1-75-0, Nathan Lyon 58-9-124-2, Matthew Kuhnemann 23-3-71-1, Todd Murphy 38-10-86-2, Travis Head 3-0-8-0.