After Virat Kohli scripted history during the weekend, the Delhi Police's quirky request to their Gujarat counterparts went viral on Twitter. On Sunday, the premier India batter broke a series of records en route to his 28th Test century against Australia in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad.
Among the multiple feats Virat Kohli achieved in Ahmedabad was becoming the quickest to complete 11,000 international runs at home.
Virat Kohli also matched former India captain Sunil Gavaskar's landmark the legendary batsman achieved four decades ago.
Virat Kohli was playing in his 50th Test on home soil, and he celebrated the occasion with a hundred. In 1983, Sunil Gavaskar made a century when he featured in his 50th Test match in Indian conditions against West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi.
The ton against Australia in Ahmedabad was his 8th hundred in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, joint-second most by any batter from the two countries. While Sachin Tendulkar has nine centuries, Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith have scored eight centuries each.
It was Virat Kohli's first Test hundred since November 2019, thus ending a 1,204 days wait for a century in the five-day format of the sport.
Moreover, it was his first century in red-ball cricket after 41 innings – his longest drought in Test matches. During this phase, Virat Kohli went without a ton in 23 games.
It was also his second Test hundred against Australia at home, following his 107 in Chennai in 2013.
Throughout his knock, Virat Kohli looked in complete command – at the start of his innings, the 34-year-old was solid in defense and milked the Australian bowlers for ones and twos.
Virat Kohli, known for his aggressive brand of cricket in white-ball cricket, turned into a grinder as the Delhi-born cricketer struck only five boundaries during his first hundred runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
After bringing up his 75th century in Gujarat during the weekend, he raised the level of his game and was looking good for a double-hundred. But Kohli lost his wicket while attempting an attacking shot off Todd Murphy.
Virat Kohli was the last Indian batter to get out for a score of 186, with the hosts putting 571/9 on the board. Shreyas Iyer didn't bat in India's first innings due to back spasms and underwent scans in the hospital.
Though Virat Kohli missed out on a record-breaking double hundred as it would have made him the first man to hit double centuries against seven teams in Test cricket, his stunning knock left the Delhi Police in awe.
As the former India captain serenely went about his business, dominating the Australian bowlers throughout the Test match, the Delhi Police requested their Gujarat counterparts not to file a complaint against him “for voluntarily causing hurt to the guests”.
“Dear Gujarat Police, Don't book our Delhi boy Virat Kohli for voluntarily causing hurt to the guests. AUS-SOME, game,” Delhi Police wrote on Twitter.
Delhi Police also shared a photo of the talismanic batter with the caption: “Bura na maano Kohli hai”.
Delhi Police's post went on to cause ripples on the microblogging platform with Twitterati praising the cops for their sense of humor.
“Considering the nature of hurt, it seems to be falling under section 95 of IPC. So, I don't think Virat Kohli needs to be booked,” an Indian cricket fan said in response to Delhi Police's tweet.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli revealed that he was anxious to get the monkey off his back during his lean phase with the bat in the whites, something he reckons led to the wait for a Test hundred getting longer than expected.
“To be honest, I've led the complications to grow on me a little bit because of my own shortcomings. I think the desperation to get the 3-figure mark is something that can grow on you as a batsman. We've all experienced that at some stage or the other. I think I led that happen to me to a certain extent,” Virat Kohli told head coach Rahul Dravid in a BCCI video.
“But also the flip side to it is that I am not a guy who is happy with 40 or 45 runs. I am someone who always takes pride in performing for the team. It's not like Virat Kohli should stand out. When I am batting on 40, I know I can get a 150 here and that will help my team. That was eating me up a lot. Why am I not able to get that big score for the team because I always took the pride in performing for the team when it needed me, in difficult conditions and difficult situations,” he added.
“The fact that I wasn't able to do that was bother me. Not so much the milestone as such as I don't play for it. A lot of people ask me this question, ‘how do you keep scoring a hundred?'. I always told them, a hundred is something that happens along the way within my goal which is to bat as long as possible for the team and get as many runs as possible. So, the milestone is never my focus. But yes, I have to be brutally honest, i does become a little complicated because the moment you step out of the hotel room, right from the guy outside the room to the guy in the lift to the bus driver, everyone is saying we want a hundred. So, it's like, it does play on your mind,” Virat Kohli asserted.
“But I think that's the beauty of playing so long as well, to have these complications come and over come these challenges. When it comes together, like it did in this game, that gives you an extra gust of air to go beyond, go further and start enjoying cricket a lot more and be excited for what's to come. I am just happy that it happened at the right time, before the World Test Championship final. I will definitely be going there pretty relaxed,” he concluded.
Kohli will be back in action on Friday, with India facing Australia in the first ODI at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.
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