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Virat Kohli may have not been able to end his century drought but he managed to script a unique yet unwanted record when he top-edged a pull shot for a six off Kagiso Rabada's bowling.
In the 41st over of the Indian innings, Kohli pulled Rabada for a six to bring India’s first maximum of the match. But as it turns out, an incredible statistics starting making rounds on Twitter which gave cricket fans a hard time believing.
This was only Kohli’s fifth six in the red-ball format in the last three years. Meanwhile, Indian batting trio of Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal and Rishabh Pant, have hit 31, 25 and 18 sixes respectively.
Even tailender Umesh Yadav is ahead of his captain Kohli in terms of sixes hit during this period. Umesh has smashed 11 sixes in 155 balls he faced while Kohli has hit 5 in 2,568 deliveries.
A much more favourable milestone that came from this match is the fact that Kohli completed 1,000 runs in South Africa as captain en route his gritty 79-run knock which came to an end when he was caught by wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne off Rabada in 73rd over of the innings.
Ever since scoring his maiden double century (his 12th career 100) in North Sound in June 2016, this is also the first time his tally of half-centuries (28) has exceeded centuries (27) in the longest format.
Despite the patient knock which came at a strike rate below 40, the 33-year-old has not scored a century across formats since 2019.
India were bundled out for 223 in their first innings of the third Test at Newlands, Cape Town. Only Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant made valuable contributions and shared fifty-plus partnerships with Kohli.
