Perth, 24 November (IANS). With brilliant centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal (161 runs) and Virat Kohli (100 not out), India declared its second innings at 487 runs for 6 wickets after the tea break on the third day of the first Test against Australia at the Perth Stadium here on Sunday. And set a very difficult target of 534 runs in front of the host team. India had a lead of 46 runs in the first innings.
As soon as Virat completed his century by hitting a four with a sweep off the ball of Marnus Labuschagne, captain Jasprit Bumrah declared the innings. On the other end, Nitish Kumar Reddy returned to the pavilion unbeaten after scoring 38 runs in 27 balls. Virat hit 8 fours and 2 sixes in his century innings of 143 balls. Whereas, Nitish hit 3 fours and 2 sixes.
With this century, Virat equaled Sunil Gavaskar’s record of scoring maximum 7 centuries in foreign countries. Apart from this, he also equaled Sachin Tendulkar’s record of scoring 9 centuries against one country. Tendulkar has 9 centuries against Sri Lanka and 11 centuries against Australia. Gavaskar holds the record of scoring 13 centuries against West Indies. This is Virat Kohli’s 30th century and he surpasses the 29 centuries of Australia’s Don Bradman.
India lost three wickets for eight runs in the space of 18 balls, but Virat made a partnership of 89 runs for the sixth wicket with Washington Sundar and 77 runs for the seventh wicket with Nitish Kumar Reddy to take India’s total lead to 500. Made it across.
Earlier, Yashasvi Jaiswal, playing ahead of his Saturday’s score of 90 runs, was out after playing a marathon inning of 161 runs with the help of 15 fours and 3 sixes in 297 balls. The second unbeaten batsman KL Rahul scored 77 runs. India had started playing yesterday with a score of 172 runs without losing any wicket.
–IANS
AMJ/RR
