IND vs AUS: Steve Smith Strategizes His Field To Deny Virat Kohli Double Century at Ahmedabad

The second last day of the fourth and final Test match between India and Australia was a full show of play by former Indian skipper Virat Kohli as he batted till the end with the Indian tail.

Kohli scored a much-awaited century against the visitors to end his century drought for 3 years in the game’s longest format of the game and was close to a double century but Smith had other plans.

However, the Australian skipper spread his field, inviting the Indian star batter to either give the strike to Mohammed Shami with a single or clear the ropes himself. Kohli chose the latter option but failed to make a good connection with the ball, getting caught and dismissed by Todd Murphy for a fourth time in the series.

Smith’s Strategy To Get Kohli Out

Virat Kohli was invited to take the singles by Steve Smith as he wanted to get the weaker batsmen on strike for getting India all out. With such a strategy, Steve Smith sent all his fielders to guard the boundaries, forcing Kohli to avoid singles and go long.

The Aussie skipper resorted to such field placement as Virat Kohli was batting with the tailenders and needed to do the bulk of the scoring to increase India’s lead and register a double-century. However, Smith’s decision paid off as the Indian batting ace was caught out in an attempt to clear the ropes, bringing the Indian innings to a halt.

Virat Was Set But Fell Short For Partners.

Team India were without the services of Shreyas Iyer, who complained of back pain on the fourth day of the Ahmedabad Test and was taken for scans.

Iyer’s absence meant that the home side was a batter short and Kohli needed to bat with Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami to reach his double ton. But Umesh was run out without facing a delivery after Peter Handscomb’s rocket throw from the deep.

Kohli, who was on course for a magnificent double century, started running out of partners once Axar Patel departed after a brilliant half-century. Kohli and Axar forged a crucial partnership of 162 runs in the final session of the day to help India post a mammoth total of 571 runs.

Both players scored 79 runs each to create a record sixth-wicket partnership for India in Tests against Australia. Later, Ravichandran Ashwin was dismissed by Nathan Lyon as the former tried to launch the Aussie for a maximum.