Kohli's masterclass in ruthlessness

Kohli's masterclass in ruthlessness

How purple should a purple patch be if a Test match double hundred has a degree of inevitability about it?

Virat Kohli walked in to bat a little before Tea on the opening day. He played the last of his 246 deliveries 13 minutes after Lunch the following day. Only once during the interim, when little Mehedi Hasan surprised himself as much as he did the batsman with a ripping off break, did it seem possible that Kohli may not get to that record-breaking fourth double-century of his.

Admittedly, it's easy to classify this innings as the easiest of his four double tons. Unlike in Antigua and Indore, Murali Vijay had laid the platform for his attack. Unlike Mumbai, he didn't have to contend with scoreboard pressure or the footmarks around the crease. Bangladesh's bowling was easily the least menacing of the lot. But it was also easy to get bored of how simple batting was and throw it away - like Vijay did after his 100 or as Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane did before theirs. Not Kohli. He was all action, all the time.

On a day, when his double ton effective shunted the opposition out of making even a feeble victory push for victory, it would have been easy for Kohli to relax at mid-off and let the gravity of the achievement sink in with every passing nonthreatening Ishant Sharma over. There are players who would have let go off the throttle then. Other players.

Kohli was busy throwing himself on the field, sprinting all the way from the slip-cordon to share a tip or to. And eventually, when bowlers couldn't do enough to land a breakthrough, he transformed into a human snickometer and effected Soumya Sarkar's dismissal with a clever call for the review system. When you are Virat Kohli, there is a time to rest. But it is never now, never on the field.

What do normal bunnies have to do to stay with the energiser bunny? How do oppositions deal with this unrelenting force barrage working overtime to pummel you down and keep you there? Bangladesh didn't have many answers. They looked as clueless as the three other teams before them this season. To invoke a famous Shane Warne quote, Kohli wasn't playing his 53rd Test match, he was simply playing the same Test match for a 53rd time.

Bangladesh's best bet to come back into the game was to attack Kohli after a break, and under the mildly helpful morning conditions. And against Kohli, as Stuart Broad discovered in Chennai, defence can be a good offence. Cut down on his runs and play on his ego.

Taskin Ahmed, vowing to better his first-day efforts - which were appreciable - had a similar ploy when he operated with a deep point and a wide slip. The strategy was to keep it well outside off-stump and not offer Kohli more than a single. But, Kohli being Kohli was quick on the uptake. He let his supple wrists play a little game with the deep-point fielder, Sabbir Rahman. It was called Left, Right and Left.

It started in the third over of the day's play, the 93rd of the innings when the second new ball could still be relied upon to do your bidding. Kohli's first act of the morning involved opening his bat face to carve a 140kmph short delivery to the left of Sabbir. The next ball, still short and wide, was sent to the right. On each occasion, the deep point fielder was barely 10 yards from where the ball hit the boundary cushion but the timing on the shots left him helpless. The third ball was the bowler killer. Takin pushed his length up, cranked up another yard of pace and got the ball in the channel. Kohli went back and across and cracked a push to cover. Having laid his marker, Kohli was in no mood to over elaborate.

At this point, Mushfiqur decided to mix it up. He brought an additional fielder in the ring on the off-side in Taskin's next over to cover for those 10 yards to Sabbir's right. Kohli picked up the next delivery, a shade fuller, and rolled his wrists over a copybook on-drive for a four to long-on. Okay short and wide didn't work? Full didn't too? How about short and into the body? Two pull shots... two more fours. Oops!

Everything was happening so fast that fielders, who stood at forward short leg for Ajinkya Rahane didn't see the need to take off the helmets, even when they moved to cover and extra cover.

The pitch was easy but Kohli's batting sublime. When Rahane attempted an upper-cut in the following over, he was beaten by the pace on the ball. Kohli walked across to have a word and a couple of balls later executed the very shot that Rahane had missed. This was the whole Nasser Hussain masterclass session in a live match.

Taskin had conceded 28 off his first four overs on the day but Mushfiqur wanted one more burst, one final crack with his premier pacer on Kohli's ego and form. He moved the slip back to a wide third man and let the deep point stay. When the expected short and wide ball came, he delayed the upper cut, ever so slightly so as to hit that seemingly non-existent gap between those two boundary-saving fielders. Kohli completed his 150 off the next ball, having hit nine of the 40 balls faced for boundaries to moved from 100-150. He completed his double century with 24 fours and no sixes. He didn't need to.

This must have been all too confusing for Bangladesh's fielders. They wanted to knock him off the crease but he hands them front-row seats to his batting mastery. Eventually they did the best thing they could - break into uniform applause with the rest of the 11000 in the stands that had turned up by then.

This was an exhibition in keeping the foot on the opposition's throat. Even after getting to 150, and the total already past 400, Kohli wasn't satiated. Since the Asia Cup of 2016, Kohli has featured in every game for India in every format - besides the tour of Zimbabwe - while others have rested or missed games at different times. With his team already so far ahead in the contest, he could have been easily excused for showing a little more daredevilry through lunch. Before this statistical anomaly of a sequence, he wasn't known for his 'Daddy Hundreds' either. So, why not show some flair.

But no, he knuckled down once more and added a more composed fourth 50. To the record books, it was the most significant off the four. Bangladesh's fielders had another reason to clap for. As did the doting crowd.