Although India lost the first Test to England by 227 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Virat Kohli joined greats like Sourav Ganguly,  Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar in an elite list of Indian cricketers with his fighting half-century. The Indian skipper stood as lone warrior on the final day as the home team, chasing 420 to win, lost wickets at regular intervals. However, Kohli wasn’t ready to put his guards down as he attacked the England bowlers on a deteriorated Chennai track. He scored 72 off 104 balls with the help of nine boundaries. The talismanic batsman even looked set to get a hundred, but an unplayable in-swinger from Ben Stokes castled his off-stump. Team India Suffers First Test Defeat at Home After Four Years as England Win by 227 Runs.

Kohli went down as India’s eighth wicket and soon after his departure; the hosts were folded for 192 runs. Nevertheless, the fourth-ranked Test batman added yet another feather to his already-illustrious hat with the counter-attacking knock. This was Kohli’s 51st fifty-plus score (24 half-centuries, 27 centuries) in Test cricket and he became just the eighth Indian batsman to achieve the feat. Do You Know England Were the Last Away Team to Win a Test Series in India?

The Indian captain equalled Sourav Ganguly’s tally who also had 51 scores of fifty or more in his 113 Test match career. Kohli is just behind Dilip Vengsarkar and Virender Sehwag who breached the 50-run mark 53 (116 Tests) and 54 (104 Tests) times. Former Indian captains Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid continue to top the Indian list with 119 (200 matches) and 99 (164 games) fifty-plus scores each. They are followed by cricketer-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar (79 in 125 Tests) and VVS Laxman (73 in 134 Tests).

Meanwhile, India is trailing 0-1 in the four-match series and stakes are incredibly high in the upcoming games. Both sides need to win at least two of the next three games to make a spot in the inaugural ICC World Test Championship final. As Virat Kohli and Co have already lost the opening clash, another defeat will put curtains to their chances of making to the summit clash.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 10, 2021 08:44 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).