Kohli, Murali heroics put India in command

Mumbai: Skipper Virat Kohli yet again stamped his authority with a brilliant unbeaten century as he powered India to a commendable 451 for seven against England on the third day of the fourth cricket Test.

Kohli’s 147 — his 15th Test hundred — and an equally confident 136 by Murali Vijay enabled India to extend their first-innings lead to 51 runs in reply to England’s 400.

The unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 87 between Kohli and rookie Jayant Yadav (30) is expected to have a significant bearing on the outcome of the match.

The day, however, belonged to Kohli, who is fast becoming India’s new ‘Milestone Man’ in every format. Providing an exhibition of top quality Test batsmanship on a track that offered significant turn and bounce, Kohli’s near six-hour effort (359 minutes) was a treat for the capacity crowd at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday evening.

En route his hundred, he completed 1000 Test runs in a calender year and also completed a personal landmark of 4000 runs in the five-day format. The 15th Test ton also took him past Gundappa Viswanath’s tally of 14.

The 241-ball knock was studded with 17 boundaries.Apart from his stand with Jayant, he was also involved in a 116-run partnership with the other centurion Vijay, who hit 10 fours and three sixes in his patient effort that saw him face 282 balls.

This was Vijay’s 8th hundred, and a timely one, after successive failures in Visakhapatnam and Mohali.If Kohli and Jayant continue in the same vein on Sunday and extend the lead past 100 runs, it will be an onerous task for the Englishmen to make a comeback as they will be batting third on a track where facing Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja may not exactly be the easiest of task at hand. For England, spinners Moeen Ali (2/139), Adil Rashid (2/152) and Joe Root (2/18) accounted for six of the seven Indian wickets to fall.

India, in fact, suffered a mini collapse during the post lunch session after Vijay’s departure.The home team lost four wickets in 17 overs while moving from 262 to 307, but Kohli found effective lower-order partners in Jadeja (25) and Jayant to pilot India past the England score and place his team in an advantageous position.

The India captain – who came into the game with a string of scores earlier in the series that read 40, 49 not out, 167, 81, 62 and 6 not out – batted in his now familiar, resolute fashion by eschewing risks, but still scored at a good rate to put India ahead in the first innings.

Vijay, on the other hand, had come into this match after not doing particularly well in the previous two Tests won by India at Vizag and Mohali and after losing his second wicket partner Cheteshwar Pujara to the second ball of the day, combined forces with his captain to negate the spin threat posed by Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.

Vijay was taken out for 136, his second ton of the series after the knock of 126 in the opening game at Rajkot, Karun Nair (13), wicket keeper batsman Parthiv Patel (15) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0) to help England wrest back the initiative.

But a stubborn Kohli held one end up to ensure the lead for the hosts, adding 41 runs with Jadeja and then continued in the same vein with Jayant Yadav.

In the morning, the hosts lost Cheteshwar Pujara to the second ball without the batsman adding to his overnight score of 47. He shouldered arms to the second ball of the day from rookie pacer Jake Ball and had his off-stump tilted to end his 107-run stand with Vijay.