Cautious Kohli unbeaten on 88 as India reach 362 for 4 at lunch
Ahmedabad (PTI): Virat Kohli sedately inched towards his first Test hundred since November 2019 as India reached 362 for four at lunch on day four of the fourth Test against Australia here on Sunday.
The pitch hasn't been easy for scoring with only 73 runs scored off 32 overs in the morning session.
Kohli (88 batting) added 29 runs to his overnight score of 59 not out with India still 118 runs behind Australia's first innings score of 480.
With Shreyas Iyer unlikely to bat due to recurrence of a lower back injury, Kona Bharat was promoted up the order and he did his case no harm with an unbeaten 25 off 70 balls.
The wicket-keeper also shared an unbroken 53-run stand with the former India captain.
Bharat, in fact, played the best shot of the morning, a slog sweep over cow corner off Nathan Lyon for a six.
The only wicket that India lost during the session was of Ravindra Jadeja (28 off 84 balls), who failed to clear Usman Khawaja at mid-on off Todd Murphy (2/64 in 32 overs).
Kohli has put his head down during his 220-ball knock and it did allow the Australians to control the proceedings on a slow deck. The only time he got closest to hitting a boundary was a flick through mid-wicket off Cameron Green but Mitchell Starc cut it down to three runs.
He was then happy getting the occasional single and double to keep the scoreboard moving.
Bharat, who has had a wretched time with the bat in the series so far, did look way more confident on a flat track and was more assured in his defence.
He put a big stride forward to negate the little bit of turn that was on offer for the Australian spinners.
The only one who got a couple of deliveries to break back sharply was Lyon (1/99 in 49 overs).
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
