Rohit Sharma, who rocked with his bat as an opener for India in Tests during the 1st Test match against South Africa in Visakhapatnam, crossed batting average of 100 in home Tests. Sharma, who scored 176 in the first innings, followed up his batting with brilliant batting in the 2nd innings as well. He smashed a century in the second innings as well. Sharma, who has also hit 10 sixes in the match so far, made the record for the most number of sixes by an Indian batsman in a single Test match. The record was earlier held by Navjot Singh Sidhu who had hit 8 sixes in Lucknow in 1994. Sharma also holds the record for most sixes in a single ODI and T20I among Indian cricketers. Hence, now he has a hat-trick of records for the most sixes in a single match in all the three formats for India. India Vs South Africa, Live Cricket Score 1st Test. 

Rohit Sharma also made a 317-run stand with his partner Mayank Agarwal, and this is the third-highest partnership by Indian openers in Tests. Rohit Sharma also broke Rahul Dravid's record after reaching a half-century in the 2nd innings of IND vs SA match. Sharma broke Dravid's record of 6 consecutive fifty-plus scores in home Tests. Dravid had made the record between 1997 and 1998. Sharma, on the other hand, scored 50-plus scores at home Tests since September 2016. He also equalled Sunil Gavaskar's record for hitting centuries in both the innings of a Test match as an opener.

Sharma also surpassed Australian-South African cricketer Kepler Wessels to smash the most number of runs while opening the innings for the first time in Test cricket. Wessels had scored 208 runs in 2 innings as an opener for Australia against England in 1982. Rohit Sharma Uses Cuss Word at Cheteshwar Pujara For Not Running a Single, But Ben Stokes Takes a Swipe at Virat Kohli, Here's Why (Watch Video). 

Meanwhile, India bagged 275-plus lead in the 2nd innings on the day 4 of India vs South Africa 1st Test. India had scored 502-7 in the first innings. South Africa scored 431 in the first innings, giving a lead of 71 runs to India on stumps of Day 3.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 05, 2019 03:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).