NORTH SOUND: Indian captain Virat Kohli reached a maiden Test double century as he continued to plunder the West Indies bowlers with the tourists reaching lunch at 404 for four on the second day of the first Test at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Friday.

He reached the milestone just before the interval and resumes in the afternoon session on exactly 200 in a fifth-wicket partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin (64 not out) that has so far produced 168 runs and all but played a dispirited-looking home team out of the game at such an early stage of the scheduled five-day contest.

However the West Indies were their own worst enemies in the morning session as Ashwin should have fallen to Shannon Gabriel when on 43 but Shane Dowrich, controversially selected to replace the experienced Denesh Ramdin as wicketkeeper for this match, grassed a straightforward chance.

That error only compounded the Caribbean team’s woes as their bowlers, with the notable exception of Gabriel, were made to look pedestrian especially by the excellence of Kohli’s batting on a pitch that has almost nothing by way of encouragement in pace and bounce.

Notwithstanding the difficulties for strokeplaying batsmen on this surface as well, the Indian skipper’s almost complete dominance of the bowlers continued through the morning as he relentlessly marched his side forward with 102 runs added in the two hours’ play from the already comfortable overnight position of 302 for four.

In six hours at the crease so far, he has faced 281 deliveries, striking 24 boundaries.

Apart from the personal milestone, Kohli is the first Indian captain to score a Test double century away from home.

He continued to enjoy the excellent support of Ashwin, a gritty, determined battler who has made the most of that generous slice of luck to reach a seventh Test half-century.

He will be eyeing the prospect of a third Test century at the expense of the West Indies, who will also have to consider the damage he may be able to wreak with his varieties of spin later on in the match.

On Thursday, Kohli stroked a commanding 12th Test century, passed 3,000 career Test runs and later on reached 1,000 as Test captain.

Shikhar Dhawan, the opening batsman missing out on a three-figure innings of his own when he fell lbw for 84 sweeping at Devendra Bishoo on the stroke of the tea interval.

Bishoo’s mixture of leg-breaks and googlies were the greatest threat to the Indians throughout a long, tiring day for the home side at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium although his three wickets were more the result of poor shot-selection by Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane.

He ended the day (Thursday) with figures of three for 108 off 27 overs.

Surprisingly he was not called upon by his captain, Jason Holder, in the first period of play, when even debutant batsman and part-time off-spinner Roston Chase delivered eight overs.

However his dismissal of Pujara via a horribly miscued pull in the first over after lunch ushered in Kohli who proceeded to transform the rest of the day into a testament to his ever-increasing stature as a batsman of the highest class.

Scoreboard

INDIA (1st Innings, overnight 302 for 4):

M. Vijay c K. Brathwaite b Gabriel 7 S. Dhawan lbw b Bishoo 84 C. Pujara c K. Brathwaite b Bishoo 16 V. Kohli not out 200 A. Rahane c Da. Bravo b Bishoo 22 R. Ashwin not out 64

EXTRAS (B-4 LB-2 NB-5)11

TOTAL (for four wkts, 119 overs) 404

FALL OF WKTS: 1-14 (Vijay), 2-74 (Pujara), 3-179 (Dhawan), 4-236 (Rahane).

TO BAT: W. Saha, A. Mishra, I. Sharma, M. Shami, U. Yadav.

BOWLING: S. Gabriel 17-5-56-1 (3nb), J. Holder 24-4-83-0 (2nb), C. Brathwaite 22-5-67-0, R. Chase 20-1-57-0, D. Bishoo 35-1-131-3, K. Brathwaite 1-0-4-0.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2016