Pune: Skipper Virat Kohli lauded the team effort that earned India a comprehensive victory in the second Test against South Africa here on Sunday.
Kohli-led India outclassed South Africa in every department to win the second Test by an innings and 137 runs on Day 4 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. The Proteas were skittled out for 189 after being asked to follow-on as they were all out for 275 at the end of Day 3, replying to India's mammoth 601/5 in the first essay.
Kohli, meanwhile, took to twitter to appreciate the Indian Team's all-round effort. The Indian skipper posted a photo collage with a caption, "Great team effort and spirit shown by the boys."
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Great team effort and spirit shown by the boys. 🇮🇳 #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/oexEQLzNTq
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) October 13, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">Great team effort and spirit shown by the boys. 🇮🇳 #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/oexEQLzNTq
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) October 13, 2019Great team effort and spirit shown by the boys. 🇮🇳 #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/oexEQLzNTq
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) October 13, 2019
Earlier, Kohli scored a record-breaking double hundred, which was his career best score in the game's longest format. The 30-year-old batsman amassed 254 runs from 336 balls with the help of 33 fours, in a marathon inning that lasted nearly eight hours.
In the process, Kohli broke a slew of records as he became the Indian batsman with the most number of double tons to his name, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag who both had scored six double tons.
Also, during the course of his innings, Kohli also went past Bradman to become the player with the most 150-plus scores as Test captain. While Bradman had achieved the feat eight times in his career, Kohli has now done it nine times so far.
Other than Kohli, Mayank Agarwal (108) scored a second successive Test hundred as Cheteshwar Pujara (58), vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane (59) and Ravindra Jadeja (91) scored delectable half centuries to help India accumulate massive first innings total.
In their reply, South Africa were ripped apart by Ravichandran Ashwin, who returned best figures of 4/69 while Umesh Yadav, making a comeback into the playing XI and included in the series in place of injured Jasprit Bumrah, took three wickets to limit South Africa to 189 in the first innings.
Asked to follow on, Maharaj (22) and Philander (37) dug deep and proved hard to beat till tea on Day 4.
But once Umesh had Philander caught behind after tea, it all fell apart as the pacer returned impressive figures of 3/22 with Jadeja also picking up three wickets as Ashwin nabbed two to help India win the second Test.
India will now take on South Africa for the final time in the rubber in Ranchi for the third Test, starting October 19.
