Bengaluru: Virat Kohli only had to play out the final ball of the third day’s play for anticipation of a famous Indian fightback levels to hit a crescendo.
But just when his thoughts might have been thinking about putting his feet up in the dressing room, the snickometer detected the thinnest of outside edges off the last ball. Kohli’s innings ended on 70(102b) but what an innings it was and his thrill-a-minute counter attacking 136-run third-wicket partnership with Sarfaraz Khan almost made many fans forget the first innings debacle.
The wicket aside, India showed that they are tough nuts to crack. The first session of the day saw New Zealand virtualy batting the hosts out of the game thanks to Rachin Ravindra’s brilliant 134. He was ably supported by Tim Southee (65 off 73 balls) as the visitors reached 402 before being bowled out. The 356-run lead would have pushed many to the edge. Not India.
Thanks to the Sarfaraz-Kohli stand, India still has hope, having reduced the deficit to 125 runs with seven wickets in hand on a pitch that hasn’t begun to play tricks for the spinners just yet, but soon will.
When Kohli walked back to the pavilion in dejection, his mind would have veered towards the ‘what ifs’. What if he hadn’t dived to steal a second run in the last over and let Sarfaraz play out the day? What if he has remained not out? What if he had stayed till the end?
While they were there together, they brought the stadium to life. Sarfaraz Khan, India’s unlikely No 4 – he rarely bats that high for Mumbai, together with the batting icon who owns that number, batted like rockstars in a concert, without a care in the world.
Following a rush of blood from Yashasvi Jaiswal (35), Kohli was greeted to the crease with thunderous applause. Before he could get his bearings right, Rohit Sharma had raced away to a brisk fifty. On a pitch which had seen the sun wipe out all the demons from the previous day, Rohit (52 off 63b) played his shots with intent to signal to the opposition that they were in for a fight.
After Rohit’s fall, Sarfaraz picked up the mantle. He even outscored Kohli. There’s a certain ingenuity to Sarfaraz’s strokes that he has mastered under the tutelage of his father-coach.
He began meeting Ajaz Khan’s lofted balls early by bringing out the sweep, a shot he is adept at. When they tried to use William O’Rourke’s higher release points and pace to trouble him, he confidently cut him for six over point. When Sarfaraz ramped the tall pacer for a four over the wicket-keeper, early in his innings, his father’s maxim ‘lage to taali, varna gaali’ (applause if you gets it right, else censure) rang true.
Even his bread-and-butter shots aren’t always conventional. When he plays the late cut – his most productive shot usually – and steers the ball to third man, he doesn’t really move his feet a lot. Sometimes, one hand even comes off the handle. But many before him have introduced their own syle to Test cricket and found success and there’s no reason why Sarfaraz cannot. His fourth fifty in his fourth Test match, showed that he is certainly on the right track.
As Sarfaraz found a higher gear, Virat found his rhythm too. A straight six against Ajaz signalled the change and then, he brought out his own sweep shot. Another four in the same over and he was away.
Or was he already away when he cover drove O’Rourke in as textbook a manner as possible? One way or the other, the two of them put the Kiwi bowlers to the sword and lifted the spirits of the crowd.
As for Sarfaraz, he got to his fifty in 42 balls and if you have watched him bat in domestic cricket, you could see he was in the zone. Unbeaten on 70 (78b, 7×4, 3×6) at stumps, the he will be harbouring ambitions of converting this into a real big one.
“The dressing room enjoys his batting. Sarfaraz is playing for India, so technique doesn’t matter. He has his own style. In fact, he’s got a very good technique against spin. He doesn’t let the spinners settle. The way he batted the left-arm spinner (Ajaz) out of the attack, they were forced to introduce the fast bowler. That’s what a good player is about,” spinner Kuldeep Yadav told reporters at close of play. “We saw him score a 200 in the Irani trophy. I hope he can get that here too.”
