-Vinay Kumar
Under the ICC World Test Championship, 2021-2023, the first match of the 3-match Test series being played between India and South Africa (India vs South Africa Test Series, 2021-2022) is being played on the Centurion ground. Indian batsmen batted brilliantly on the day of this match which started on 26 December. But, the second day of the match got dusted due to rain.
Significantly, by the end of the first day’s match, India had scored 272 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. Team India’s fine captain Virat Kohli was the last player to be dismissed on the first day of the match. While batting, he was seen in excellent form, although he was caught behind in the process of playing a shot on a ball going out.
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It is worth noting that captain Virat Kohli faced 94 balls in the first innings batting of the first match of the series and hit 4 fours and scored 35 runs. It is worth noting that for the last two years, he has been going through a bad form. He is not able to play in the style for which he is known. Virat Kohli, popularly known as the ‘run machine’ in the world of cricket, has not been able to score a single century for the last 2 years. In such a situation, due to the controversy surrounding him before this series, this tour has become important for him not only as the captain of the Test team, but also from the batsman’s point of view. Although, he could not get much runs from his bat in this innings, but many records were recorded in his name even in this small innings.
Virat Kohli breaks MS Dhoni’s record
Team India’s captain Virat Kohli scored 35 runs in the first innings of this match and topped the list of Asian captains who scored the most Test runs on South African soil. Virat Kohli has scored 316 runs in the Test matches played in South Africa. He has overtaken former Indian team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who scored a total of 266 runs in the grounds of South Africa during his career, as soon as he scored 35 runs in this innings. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar with 241 runs, Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne with 219 runs and Pakistan’s Inzamam Ul Haq with 198 runs are included in this list.
Indian Cricketer to Score ‘Fastest 4000’ Runs in Foreign Grounds
Virat Kohli has completed 4000 runs in Test cricket in overseas grounds as well as his 35-run knock in the first innings of the first Test match of the series at Centurion ground. With this, he also became the fourth Indian batsman to touch the mark of 4000 Test runs. Captain Virat Kohli has completed 4000 runs in 95 innings of Test matches played so far in foreign grounds. The history of Test cricket tells that he broke the record of VVS Laxman touching 4000 runs in 103 matches and Sourav Ganguly touching this figure in 103 matches.
The record of touching the fastest 4000 runs in foreign grounds is in the name of former India batsman and current head coach of the Indian team, Rahul Dravid. Rahul Dravid had crossed the 4000 runs mark in his international career in just 77 innings of total matches played abroad. Before him, former Indian captain and great batsman Sunil Gavaskar had made this record in just 80 innings. Sachin Tendulkar touched this figure in 85 innings.