If Sunday was KL Rahul’s glorious day then Monday was Indeed all about Ajinkya Rahane. The Mumbai batsman knocked the stuffing out of the West Indies in Jamaica as he struck a blazing century. It was the seventh century hit by him in the longest format.
His five centuries out of the seven have come abroad including England, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies. Rahane missed scoring a century against Bangladesh and South Africa with a very narrow edge as his scores were 96 against South Africa in 2014 and 98 against Bangladesh in 2015.
Rahane started on 42 runs on the third day of the test and played wisely as he took time to reach the ton runs mark. Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha made a brilliant partnership of 98 runs for the sixth wicket. After Saha was sent back to the pavilion, India lost two quick wickets due to rain. Mohammed Shami and Amit Mishra were dismissed and the hope of reaching par 300 runs of India was shaking. But Rahane’s spell came into work as he increased his tempo and started hitting runs.
Rahane played 231 balls to complete his three-figure mark and stayed unbeaten. Rahane smashed 108 runs striking 13 fours and three sixes. His five hours long innings and an unbeaten 108 runs helped India to take a 304-run lead over West Indies.
Skipper Virat Kohli declared innings at 500 runs with the loss of 9 wickets which is a stiff challenge for West Indies.
In his last four test matches, Ajinkya Rahane smashed three tons and also he also scored a double ton in Delhi against South Africa in December.
Starting from India’s tour of South Africa in 2013-2014, Ajinkya Rahane performed like a true cricketer wearing his heart on his sleeves. He is the only player who has played at least one innings of 90 or more runs in consecutive eight Test series.
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2 August, 2016
Avni S. Singh