India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test: Sri Lanka undone by Delhi’s best- Virat Kohli – and worst- pollution

Virat Kohli raises his bat after bringing up his double hundred on the second day of the third Test against Sri Lanka in Delhi on Sunday. ( Source: Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Just outside the Virender Sehwag Gate, on which is painted the legend’s portrait and embellished with redundant numerical nuggets, an over-eager teen asked his friend to click a picture with this background. After the brief photo session, terminated by a growling policeman, and as they walked enthusiastically into the nearby turnstiles, the youngster curiously asked his friend: “Kohli ki gate nahin hain kya?” The friend reassured: “Nahin, lekin is teen sau ke baad zaroor hoga.”

At the Kotla on Sunday, the currency on the lip of 15,000-odd spectators was three hundred and the number on the back of their blue jerseys 18 . There was no nervous question of whether Kohli would accomplish the milestone – he was still 144 runs, a daddy hundred, away from it when play started – but when. Before tea or after it? With a flick or a drive? With a single or a six like Sehwag’s Multan one? Their concern was not food or water, but battery conservation – power-banks and cameras are disallowed – so their smartphone cameras needed to last long enough to soak their hero’s moment of glory.

Those weren’t wishful speculations or fantasy cricket. It’s not easy getting to a triple, as it’s hinged on several variables, like the scoring rate of the batsman, the number and quality of batsmen around him, the overall context of the match, the fitness, the weather and, of course the potency of the opposition bowlers. At Kotla, it seemed like every element was aligning perfectly for a Kohli triple. He was in majestic touch, speeding along at a strike rate in the deep 80s, he had Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, the two bowling all-rounders, and a tail that would burn a hole in the wall for their skipper. There was still a day for Kohli to move from 156 to 300, the Sri Lankans bowlers were tired and dispirited, the weather generally balmy. The only sight that made them breathe deeply might have been the physio and his entourage rushing to tend to his aching back between breaks. But then, Kohli’s fitness and endurance levels have reached fabled heights.

Aggressive start
So it wasn’t inconceivable to see Kohli celebrating this rare Indian landmark — only two have done it before him — sometime deep into the second day. As they’d wished, he set off on an aggressive note in the first session, driving, cutting and pulling the erratic Sri Lankans to submission, the 87 runs he scored on Sunday coming off merely 101 balls. Sehwag-esque, trumpeted the crowd.

A triple hundred, thus, seemed invariable. On a broader canvas, it also showed how the crowd’s expectations (or burden) have soared with the steep upward curve of Kohli’s career in the last 17 months. After six double hundreds and three other hundreds in this span, Kohli is, well, their superman in whites. He already was the superman in blue.

He might yet not be inducted into the Dravid-Tendulkar-Gavaskar league, but he surely is halfway to it. None of the three could score a triple hundred, though. Temporarily, at least, Kohli couldn’t either, though he surpassed the three in terms of both double century count as well as the most by an Indian skipper. It’s a pity that he missed the triple hundred to the sustained percussion of 15,000-odd spectators whose vocal chords and clatter of palms made it feel like there were three times that many. He fell 57 runs short of it. A rare, low Lakshan Sandakan skidder beat his bat. A cruel trick of the pitch? A crueller trick of fate? The frequent pauses? A rare break in focus?

The review, everyone at the ground knew, was futile. A morbid silence engulfed the stadium, before the deafening applause took over, those very repeated frames and features of the Tendulkar era, but worth repeating for the very similarity of emotions. He, like Tendulkar, leaves the crowd with the same feeling. Content, yet discontent.

Sterner tests ahead
Never mind that four of his six double hundreds were stacked up against teams in the lower half of the Test table (two against Sri Lanka, one each against Bangladesh and West Indies). Irrespective of the mettle of the opposition bowling, double hundreds are no mean feat. Half a dozen of them in the span of 17 months even more so. And only one of those came at a strike rate of less than 69 (the 211 against New Zealand).

True that sterner tests await him. There are boxes to be ticked in South Africa, New Zealand and England. Against “Branderson” at home, Southee and Bolt, Philander and Rabada, Starc and Hazlewood. Kohli would just say, “bring them on”. For, he is the superman in whites. And somewhere at Kotla, a creaky old gate is waiting to be renamed The Virat Kohli Gate.