Rohit Sharma slams 161, India finish Day 1 on 300/6
Chennai, Feb 13: Rohit Sharma oozed class with an aesthetically pleasing 161 on a challenging track, helping India seize the initiative with a solid opening day score of 300 for 6 against England in the second cricket Test here on Saturday.
Ajinkya Rahane looked equally attractive during his knock of 67 off 149 balls and the two Mumbaikars added 162 runs for the fourth wicket, making it worth the effort for the 12,000 who flocked the Chepauk as Indian cricket welcomed its fans back in the stadium amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The key was to use good footwork. We had the strategy (on the sweep shot), we did discuss the game plan on this, and wanted to make them bowl to our strengths, good that the plans came off," Rahane said at the end of day's play.
A score of 350 plus in the first innings will be equivalent to 550 plus on any other track and Rishabh Pant's (33 batting) dangerous presence could also take India well beyond the magic figure on this track. At stumps, he had debutant Axar Patel (5) for company.
Rohit had scored six Test hundreds prior to this knock but he will be the first to admit that in terms of conditions on offer and the quality of attack he faced, the seventh one would be at the top of the list.
On a hot Saturday, Rohit did two things at one go.
Firstly, he put India in a commanding position on a track which was way more difficult for batting than he made it look with 18 fours and two sixes in his 231-ball knock.
Secondly, he put all the naysayers in their place by scoring runs when it mattered the most. The team is aiming for a comeback after a crushing 227-run loss in the first Test.
Joe Root was marvellous with his sweep shot during the first Test but Rohit was simply magnificent with his execution on a doubly difficult track on which he gave England spinner Moeen Ali (26-3-112-3) a lesson in controlled aggression.
The way Rohit put a big front-foot stride outside the off-stump to sweep deliveries off both Moeen and Jack Leach (26-2-78-2) will not be forgotten by all who were fortunate to witness the innings.
Rohit's defence was spectacularly solid and offence as assured as a safe house.
Knowing fully well that the track would start crumbling with the passage of play, Rohit attacked at the first go, picking 80 runs in the first session, something that will perhaps play the biggest role in the final context of the game.
It started with a cover drive off Stuart Broad and then there was a pulled six over mid-wicket off Ben Stokes.
While skipper Virat Kohli (0) was done in by a classical off-spinner's delivery from Moeen -- flighted outside the off-stump and enticing him to go for a cover drive only to find his defence breached.
If Rohit played those sweeps in a regal manner, Rahane was no less classy in his drives -- the front and back-foot punches off the pacers and those lovely cut shots off the spinners were delightful to watch.
Call it irony, Rahane chose a wrong delivery from Moeen for playing the sweep and was bowled in the process.
He hit nine boundaries in a half-century that came after a barren run of seven innings. This was after he survived an umpiring howler from Anil Chaudhary.
But then, he was destined to be in Rohit's shadow on a day when determination became his primary capital.
"It is a difficult track where you don't know whether to come forward or remain on the back-foot," Sunil Gavaskar, who knows more than a thing or two about batting on turners, said on air.
Leach was introduced in the ninth over and Rohit perhaps remembered his second innings dismissal in the opening Test.
He knew that Leach's main weapon was extra bounce with a slight turn. He met Leach's deliveries by putting the front leg across the off-stump.
This negated any chance of his off-stump getting exposed and he also couldn't be adjudged leg before.
Root had got Moeen for this match in place of Dom Bess, primarily because of the prodigious turn that is expected to be on offer.
However, the senior-most spinner made a cardinal mistake that happens out of excitement for all tweakers when they see cracks.
They try to go for extra turn rather than hitting one spot and letting the pitch do the rest.
It only helped a player like Rohit dispatch him with the turn.
It was only fitting that he reached his three figure mark with a sweep that got him two runs and also perished when he top-edged playing the same shot.
It wasn't the easiest of conditions but for India's 'Hit-Man', difficult has always been the easiest route.
Scoreboard at stumps on the first day of the second Test between India and England here:
India 1st Innings:
Rohit Sharma c Moeen b Jack Leach 161
Shubman Gill lbw b Olly Stone 0
Cheteshwar Pujara c Stokes b Jack Leach 21
Virat Kohli b Moeen 0
Ajinkya Rahane b Moeen 67
Rishabh Pant batting 33
Ravichandran Ashwin c Ollie Pope b Root 13
Axar Patel batting 5
Total: (for six wickets in 88 overs) 300
Fall of Wickets: 1-0, 2-85, 3-86, 4-248, 5-249, 6-284.
Bowling: Stuart Broad 11-2-37-0, Olly Stone 15-5-42-1, Jack Leach 26-2-78-2, Ben Stokes 2-0-16-0, Moeen Ali 26-3-112-2, Joe Root 8-2-15-1.
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Will not accept 'Veer Savarkar Award' nor attend the ceremony: Shashi Tharoor
Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi (PTI): Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday categorically stated that he would not accept an award named after VD Savarkar, nor attend a related event, even as a senior party colleague wanted the Congress MP to not accept any honour named after the ideologue whom he claimed "bowed before the British."
Tharoor said that he will not accept the "Veer Savarkar Award" and also won't attend the event where it will be presented in the absence of clarifications about its nature or the organisation presenting it.
Tharoor, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, also said that "it was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it".
Earlier in the day, Congress leader K Muraleedharan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that no party member, including Tharoor, should accept any award in the name of Veer Savarkar "as he had bowed before the British."
Muraleedharan said that he does not believe that Tharoor will accept the award as doing so would insult and embarrass the Congress party.
Tharoor later told reporters in the national capital that he heard about the award on Tuesday and that he was not going for the ceremony.
"I heard about it yesterday only. I am not going. I am not here," he said in response to a question on Wednesday on his participation in the award ceremony.
Subsequently, in a post on social media platform 'X', the Congress MP said, "In the absence of clarifications about the nature of the award, the organisation presenting it or any other contextual details, the question of my attending the event today or accepting the award does not arise."
He further said that he learned from media reports that he was named as a recipient of the award when he went to Kerala to vote in the local body polls on Tuesday.
He said he had clarified then that he was neither aware of, nor had accepted, such an award.
"Despite that, today in Delhi, some media outlets continue to ask the same question. Therefore, I am issuing this statement to clarify the matter unequivocally," Tharoor added.
Following Tharoor's statement, Aji Krishnan, the secretary of the Highrange Rural Development Society (HRDS) India which is presenting the award, told a TV channel that the Congress MP was informed about the matter well in advance.
He said that representatives of HRDS India and the chairman of the award jury had met Tharoor at his residence to invite him and the MP had asked for a list of the other recipients of the award.
"We gave him the list. He has not yet informed us that he will not come for the event. Perhaps he is scared as the Congress has made it an issue," Krishnan claimed.
Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev said it was Tharoor's decision whether to accept the award or not.
Tharoor was chosen as one of the recipients of the inaugural Veer Savarkar International Impact Award 2025, instituted by HRDS India, on Wednesday in New Delhi.
On Tuesday, he had said that he heard about the award through the media and that he was not aware who was giving it.
"I am not aware of anything related to the award. Let me find out what it is," he had said.
