Twenty five-year-old Karun Nair, playing only the third Test of his career, surpassed all expectations as he went on to hit a triple ton on the fourth day of the fifth and final cricket Test match against England at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Monday.
Nair’s maiden triple ton took India past 750 runs in reply to England’s first innings score of 477. Virat Kohli declared the innings at 759/7 with a lead of 282 runs over England. This is India's highest ever total in the longest format of the game. England were 12 for no loss at the end of 4th Day.
The youngster becomes the second Indian batsman to score a triple century after Virender Sehwag, who also scored one of his triple centuries on the same ground.
Nair, who smashed 32 fours and 4 sixes, took 381 balls to reach the milestone.
The Karnataka boy becomes the first ever batsman to hit a triple ton in his first Test series. Also, he is only the third Test player after West Indies legend Garry Sobers (365*) and Aussie Bob Simpson (311) to convert their maiden Test century into a triple century.
Meanwhile, R Ashwin and R Jadeja also completed their half-centuries.
Earlier, resuming at an overnight score of 391-4, Nair and Vijay found the going a bit tough against the duo of Dawson and Stuart Broad.
While Dawson bothered Vijay with his slow deliveries in the 110th over, Broad almost had his man in the 115th over when he induced a slight nick off the Tamil Nadu batsman but umpire Simon Fry felt otherwise and England didn't have any reviews left.
In the next over, Nair blasted Dawson for a six over long-on, while Vijay picked up a boundary off Ben Stokes behind point in the 121st over.
One over later, Nair sliced Stokes behind point to pick up another boundary and along with it his maiden Test century and he celebrated the achievement by raising his bat.
Vijay's (29) fall in the 124th over brought Ashwin to the crease and after a few overs, Nair once again repeated his treatment to Stokes, picking up successive boundaries off the bowler to keep the scoreboard ticking.
