The veteran Indian opener, Rohit Sharma made a remarkable start to his role as a Test opener in the Indian team. In the first innings of the ongoing Test between India and South Africa, he announced himself with a century, scoring 176. He made a strong partnership of 317 runs with Mayank Agarwal for the opening wicket. In addition, Rohit also scored at an impressive strike-rate of 72.
The Mumbai batsman, who is an established opener in the limited-overs format, is experimented for the opening role after Hanuma Vihari’s impressive performances at number 6 closed doors for a comeback in the lower middle-order. However, with his performances in the first Test, Rohit is well on his seemingly sealed the spot and ended the opening woes for Virat Kohli and co. for now.
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During the second innings, the 32-year-old also broke Navjot Singh Sidhu’s long-standing record on the Indian pitches. Rohit now holds the record for most sixes in a Test match in India. He achieved the feat when he slammed Dane Piedt’s delivery out of the park in the 20th over of the innings. This was his ninth six in the match. Sidhu had hit eight sixes against Sri Lanka in 1994. Mathew Hayden, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, and Ajinkya Rahane follow the two with seven sixes.
Kohli applauds Rohit sixes..!!https://t.co/hP7w4eGdSg
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With his feat, Sharma now has the most sixes by an Indian batsman in all three formats. He holds the record in ODIs (16) and T20Is (10) as well.
Rohit continued on where he left in the first innings, as he made an aggressive start even as Mayank was dismissed on 7. By the time this was written, he is batting at a strike rate of 64+ as he reached 57 in 88 deliveries, hitting three fours and four sixes.
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After the lunch on Day 4, India ist at 35/1 in the second innings as the visitors were bundled out for 431 and concede a first-innings lead of 71 runs. De Kock made 111 and put on a key 164-run stand with Elgar, who scored 160, to thwart the Indian bowling attack on day three of the first Test in Visakhapatnam.
