TIL Desk Sports/ Virat Kohli took a giant stride towards exorcising the ghosts of 2014 with a masterful century as he single-handedly pulled India out of the woods against England on an eventful second day of the first Test, in Birmingham, on Thursday.
Kohli’s splendid innings 149, which will rank amongst one of the finest hundreds by an Indian batsman on English soil, enabled the visitors to reach 274 thereby bringing down the first innings deficit to only 13 runs. England were earlier bowled out for 287 in their first innings.
Interestingly, Kohli’s 149 in a single innings is 15 runs more than his aggregate of 134 runs in 10 knocks during the disastrous tour of 2014. At stumps, England were nine for one in their second innings with an overall lead of 22 runs, after Ravichandran Ashwin once again dismissed Alastair Cook early.
The day certainly belonged to Kohli, whose dogged determination for a course correction was evident during an innings where he scored more than fifty percent of his team’s runs even as he was booed by England fans for his version of ‘mic drop’ celebrations on the first day.
