Nottingham, August 20: India captain Virat Kohli notched up his 23rd Test century on the third day of the third Test against England at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Leading from the front, Kohli brought up his half-century off 74 deliveries and then reached the three-figures in 189 balls. His innings was laced with 9 boundaries.

However, Kohli did survive a scare in the nervous nineties when Keaton Jennings dropped him on 93. Making full use of the opportunity the right-hander went on to score his second hundred in the ongoing Test series.

Kohli’s knock at Nottingham was a hard-fought, well crafted. Showing tremendous application in the middle Kohli played a fine knock to put India in command. Last time when Kohli toured England in 2014, he scored a total of 134 runs in the five-match Test series at an average of 13.40. There were two occasions when Kohli departed on a duck. But with this innings, it will be fair to say that the ghosts of 2014 have been buried at last.

En route to his hundred, Virat Kohli went past Mohammad Azharuddin’s tally of 426 runs to become the Indian captain with most runs in a series in England.

This is the second Test in the series where Kohli has scored 50+ in both the innings. In his stellar career, Kohli has achieved this record for the fifth time as a captain surpassing MS Dhoni (4 times) and MAK Pataudi (3).

Kohli has also reached 50 for the fourth time in this series. Only one India batsman has done it more often in a Test series in England (Gavaskar’s 5 in 1979).

In terms of most runs scored by an Indian Test captain away from home, Kohli tops the charts with 1827 runs. Sourav Ganguly is second with 1693 runs. MS Dhoni follows him with 1591 runs. Interestingly, Kohli’s runs have come in 30 innings at an average of more than 60. Sourav Ganguly had scored 1693 in 43 innings (avg 43.41).

Incidentally, Kohli has also crossed 700 runs in the ongoing England tour. He has scored 871 runs in his last tour against South Africa.

Courtesy: indianexpress.com

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Mangaluru: Flight operations between Mangaluru and several Gulf destinations continue to remain affected, with multiple services cancelled on March 4 and 5, according to a statement issued by the airport spokesperson.

The cancelled flights on March 4 include

Mangaluru–Jeddah (IX 845)
Jeddah–Mangaluru (IX 846)
Mangaluru–Dubai (IX 831)
Mangaluru–Dubai (IX 813)
Mangaluru–Kuwait (IX 851)
Mangaluru–Dammam (IX 847)
Mangaluru–Abu Dhabi (IX 815).

Flights cancelled on March 5 include

Dubai–Mangaluru (IX 832)
Dubai–Mangaluru (IX 814)
Dammam–Mangaluru (IX 848)
Abu Dhabi–Mangaluru (IX 816).

Meanwhile, airline operations to Mumbai, Delhi and a few other cities from the Gulf are beginning in a limited manner.

Air India announced that it is deploying widebody aircraft with higher passenger capacity on its services to Jeddah and Dubai on March 3 and 4 to facilitate the return of passengers impacted by the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

A Boeing 777 aircraft with a seating capacity of close to 350 passengers departed Mumbai for Jeddah on the evening of March 3, the airline said in a statement.

This will be followed by a Boeing 787-9 aircraft with around 300 seats scheduled to depart Delhi for Dubai later in the night, and another Boeing 787-8 aircraft with over 250 seats operating from Mumbai to Dubai in the early hours of March 4.

Air India Express said it will resume flight operations to and from Muscat from March 3, 2026.

However, flights to and from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will remain suspended until 23:59 hrs IST (18:29 hrs UTC) on March 3.

SpiceJet is operating special flights from Fujairah to Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi to support Indian nationals travelling back home.