Continuing a spectacular run in his debut series as Test opener, Rohit Sharma scored his maiden double century in the longest format at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi on Sunday, 20 October.
The opening batsman reached the three-figure mark in 249 deliveries on the second day of India’s third Test against South Africa.
Rohit became the third Indian opener to score a double hundred against South Africa in Tests – the first two being Virender Sehwag and Mayank Agarwal – before getting caught at the fine leg boundary by Lungi Ngidi off Kagiso Rabada for 212. His 255-ball knock included 28 fours and six sixes.
He is also only the fourth batsman overall and third Indian to score double centuries in both Tests and ODIs, with Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Chris Gayle having achieved the feat.
Rohit always looked good for a 'big daddy' hundred when he came out to bat with an overnight score of 117 on the second day, milking the Proteas bowlers around with relative nonchalance.
The 32-year old, who has three double hundreds in white-ball cricket with a career best score of 264, got to 150 in 199 balls and raced to the 190s from there in quick time.
Rohit hit Andrich Nortje for back-to-back boundaries in the 84th over, the penultimate before lunch, to race to 196 and in the last over before the break survived few edges off Kagiso Rabada to move to 199 from 242 balls, his innings of six and half hours laced with 28 fours and four sixes.
Just after the break, India's limited overs vice-captain tonked Lungi Ngidi for a six to get to his milestone in style, and got to his hundred in this innings.
The shot was a full-blooded pull in front of square as the ball sailed into the stands and the dressing room rose together to applaud the effort. Rohit, often compared to Virender Sehwag for his dashing sytle as a Test opener, paid a fitting tribute to the former India batsman on his 41st birthday.
Replacing an out-of-form KL Rahul at the top of the order, Rohit had notched up scores of 176 and 127 in the first match at Vizag.
He had added yet another feather to his cap on the opening day of the Ranchi Test by becoming the batsman to hit the most number of sixes in a Test series.
During the ongoing three-Test series against South Africa, Rohit has so far hit 17 sixes and has surpassed Shimron Hetmyer's tally of 15 which came during the two-match series between West Indies and Bangladesh in 2018/19.
Rohit already holds the record for hitting the maximum number of sixes in a Test match. During the first Test in Visakhapatnam, the stylish batsman hit 13 sixes and went past Wasim Akram's tally of 12 maximums which the Pakistan pacer had hit during his 257-run knock against Zimbabwe in 1996.
(With inputs from IANS)
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