NAGPUR: Virat Kohli coasted to his fifth double century as India’s frontline batsmen crushed Sri Lanka’s toothless attack to stay on course for an innings victory in the second Test in Nagpur on Sunday.

Kohli smashed 213 while Rohit Sharma celebrated his return to the side after more than a year with an unbeaten 102 before the hosts declared their second innings closed on 610 for six on the third day for a commanding lead of 405.

Sri Lanka’s misery did not end there as they lost Sadeera Samarawickrama without scoring on the second ball from Ishant Sharma to reach 21-1 in their second innings at stumps, still needing 384 to make India bat again.

Dimuth Karunaratne was unbeaten on 11 with Lahiru Thirimanne nine not out and the touring side will need a Herculean effort from their batsmen to avoid an innings defeat after the first of the three-Test series was drawn in Kolkata.

The day belonged to Kohli, who walked off to a standing ovation from a raucous crowd after falling to off-spinner Dilruwan Perera.

Kohli, who started the day on 54, smashed 17 fours and two sixes during his 267-ball knock.

“He is a kind of player who performs well in all formats of the game,” Cheteshwar Pujara, who shared a 183-run third-wicket partnership with Kohli, said of his captain.

“The way he started off, he kept the momentum through the innings and I don’t think anyone else could have played those shots in the way he did.

“I think it’s his confidence. And the way he is batting in the last two-three years, it would have been difficult for any other batsman to score with such a strike rate,” Pujara told reporters.

It was the star batsman’s fifth 200-plus score in his 62nd Test. He has also achieved double centuries against the West Indies, New Zealand, England and Bangladesh.

After the third-wicket marathon partnership, Kohli and Sharma put on 173 for the fifth wicket to pulverise a deflated Sri Lanka attack that sent down 176.1 overs in about six sessions of play.

Kohli received able support from Sharma, who reached his 50 before tea and then stepped up a gear to amass runs all around the ground and register his third Test hundred.

Kohli’s earlier marathon stand stand with his overnight partner Pujara, who made a composed 143, had taken the steam out of the attack.

Pujara was bowled by paceman Dasun Shanaka in the first session, but Kohli kept scoring quickly as his team chased an innings victory.

“I think it was difficult to score runs as this wicket was on the slower side. It wasn’t easy to get boundaries and we had to rotate the strike,” said Pujara.

“But I think, going forward in this game, the ball has started turning and we are hoping Day 4, spinners will come into play. And at the same time there is variable bounce for fast bowlers, Ishant and Umesh [Yadav] will also come into play.”

Kohli’s score was his 10th international century (four in Tests and six in One-day Internationals) of the year — the most by any captain in a calendar year.

Australia’s Ricky Ponting had hit nine hundreds across two formats in 2005 and 2006, while South African Graeme Smith once had nine centuries to his credit.

Ajinkya Rahane, who was out to Perera for two, and opener Lokesh Rahul were the only two specialist batsmen to miss the Indian run fest of one double century and three centuries.

The first century had come from Murali Vijay (128), who along with Pujara had put India in the driving seat with a 209-run second-wicket partnership after Rahul’s early departure on day one.

“The target is to get 20 wickets,” said Sri Lankan bowling coach Rumesh Ratnayake. “We have not been able to do that against India this year. We have slowed down their pace of scoring a bit, but that is not a compliment in our minds.

“We now need to take this game into the fifth day. We want to be positive. If you take the Indian innings, they were positive and we can take that as a lesson.”

Scoreboard

SRI LANKA (1st Innings) 205 (L.D. Chandimal 57, F.D.M. Karunaratne 51; R. Ashwin 4-67, I. Sharma -3-37, R.A. Jadeja 3-56).

INDIA (1st Innings, overnight 312-2):

K.L. Rahul b Gamage 7
M. Vijay c Perera b Herath 128
C.A. Pujara b Shanaka 143
V. Kohli c Thirimanne b Perera 213
A.M. Rahane c Karunaratne b Perera 2
R.G. Sharma not out 102
R. Ashwin b Perera 5
W.P. Saha not out 1

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-4, W-1) 9

TOTAL (for six wkts decl, 176.1 overs) 610

FALL OF WKTS: 1-7, 2-216, 3-399, 4-410, 5-583, 6-597.

DID NOT BAT: R.A. Jadeja, U.T. Yadav, I. Sharma.

BOWLING: Lakmal 29-2-111-0; Gamage 35-8-97-1; Herath 39-11-81-1; Shanaka 26.1-4-103-1 (1w); Perera 45-2-202-0; Karunaratne 2-0-8-0.

SRI LANKA (2nd Innings):

S. Samarawickrama b I. Sharma 0
F.D.M. Karunaratne not out 12
H.D.R.L. Thirimanne not out 9

EXTRAS 0

TOTAL (for one wkt, 9 overs) 21

FALL OF WKT: 1-0.

BOWLING (to-date): I. Sharma 4-1-15-1; Ashwin 4-3-5-0; Jadeja 1-1-0-0.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2017