Taking part in his 500th international match, Virat Kohli made it memorable by smashing a 76th hundred as India reached a solid first-innings score of 438. On the first day of the second Test match, the former India skipper started his batting slowly since it was a tricky wicket. The 34-year-old batter remained unbeaten on 87 at the time of stumps on Day 1.
Kohli came out to bat again on Day 2, reached his 29th Test century, and ended up scoring 121 in 206 balls. Veteran wicket wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik spoke about the same and praised Kohli after seeing his hunger for runs.
"We can all say about the lovely shots that Kohli played, the cover drives and the pulls. Here is a man playing his 500th match, but he played it like it was his fifth match. That hunger, on a pitch that probably really didn't aid stroke-making, he fought through it. We saw that in the first Test as well, and we are seeing it again now," Karthik said on Cricbuzz.
"If you heard Rahul Dravid speak about him, the two things that he said were respect and his sacrifices. You can see that shining through in this innings yet again. Not at his fluent best, for sure, but he made it count. Just making sure that he stood there. Played those tough balls out. Just making sure that he is mentally there, and making it count for Team India," he added.
Kohli dominated the first session of the second day as he was seen tormenting the West Indies bowlers by taking 77 runs in singles, doubles, and triples apart from the 11 boundaries in all.
Beginning the day at 87, the Delhi-based batter reached his hundred within the first 30 minutes of the game. Along with Kohli’s hundred, Jadeja and Ashwin also played well and powered India to 438 in their first innings. In reply, West Indies were 86/1 after losing Tagenarine Chanderpaul for 33. The hosts trail India by another 362 runs.