KL Rahul slammed his fifth Test century on Tuesday. (Source: Reuters)
KL Rahul slammed his fifth Test century on the fifth and final day of the last Test between India and England, taking place at the Oval in London. This is his first hundred of the five-match series.
With the century, he kept India’s hopes alive even though the visitors have already lost the series 3-1. Rahul smashed an unbeaten 108 off 126 balls with the help of 17 boundaries and a six off Ben Stokes.
With the feat, the 26-year old becomes just the third opener to score a hundred in the fourth innings of a Test match after Sunil Gavaskar and Shikhar Dhawan. His first four centuries appeared in the first five instances of him crossing the 50-run mark itself. He has since taken 11 more 50-plus scores to convert it into a century.
KL Rahul’s fine century took India to 167 for 5 at lunch on day five, with India still trailing England by 296 runs. Rahul added 118 runs for the fourth wicket with vice-captain Rahane (37, 106 balls) before Moeen Ali brought about the latter’s downfall.
On Monday, Rahul caught Ben Stokes to surpass former Indian captain Rahul Dravid’s record of most number of catches for India in a series. With a total of 14 catches, he overtook Dradvid’s record which came against Australia in the 2004-5 series. He also managed to draw level Greg Chappell’s 14 catches, taken in six Tests during the 1974-75 Ashes.