Rohit Sharma begins new innings in Test cricket with century
Rohit Sharma began his new innings in Test cricket on a sensational note as he slammed a century to flatten the South African spirits and brighten India's hopes of finding a steady opener.
Rohit's century, his fourth overall in whites was marked with his usual sense of start slow and then cut loose as he reached his ton off 154 balls in the 54th over of the first innings after a watchful start.
Coming in to bat with a failure in the warm-up game for Board President's XI against the South Africans, a lot depended on how he fared on Wednesday but Rohit passed the boards with flying colours after a failure in the mock test.
The 32-year-old looked troubled initially with the incoming ball and also had some played and misses but once the ball stopped moving, it was a plain sail for India's A-list limited-overs opener.
What made his innings even special was that he was ready to take the game to the Proteas despite being under pressure at times. Much like his one-day game, most of his runs came through backfoot punches and pulls. While the low bounce at times remained an area of concern, his belief and confidence to go ahead with risk shots is what made the innings stand out.
From dancing down the tracks to Keshav Maharaj and Dane Piedt to standing tall and crunching them through the off-side, his innings was laced with sheer artistry and a trademark Hitman show. It included two towering sixes off Piedt over long-on in the 50th over and 4 in total till now as well.
He also became the fourth Indian to slam a century in maiden innings as an opener for India after Shikhar Dhawan (187 vs Australia in Mohali 2012/13), KL Rahul (110 vs Australia at SCG in 2014/15), Prithvi Shaw (134 vs West Indies at Rajkot in 2018/19).
The 32-year-old is also the first Indian player to score a hundred in all three international formats (Tests, ODIs & T20Is) while opening the innings.
With the century, he also continued his good show in whites at home.
Rohit had scores of 82, 51*, 102*, 65 and 50* before today and he continued the run at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. He joined Everton Weekes (Nov 1948 - Feb 1949), Rahul Dravid (Nov 1997 - Mar 1998) and Andy Flower (Mar 1993 - Nov 2000) to register 50+ scores in six consecutive Test innings in India.
This was also the seventh time an Indian opening pair posted 100+ in first innings together. A Mankad and Farokh Engineer were the first to do so against Australia in Kanpur (1969/70) while KL Rahul and Parthiv Patel were the last to do so in Chennai against England (2016/17). This was also the first century opening stand for India against South Africa since the 137 between Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in Centurion (2010).
This was also the third 100+ opening stand overall in 2019 in Tests following New Zealand's 254 and Sri Lanka's 161.
