Nagpur Test, Day 3: Kohli, Rohit shine as India take mammoth lead over Sri Lanka

Nagpur, Nov 26: Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma shined with the bat as India piled up mammoth 610/6 in their first innings and took 405-run lead against Sri Lanka before declaring their innings.

Match scorecard; Social talk; Day 2 report

Skipper Kohli made it a 'Super Sunday' spectacle hitting his 19th century in the longest format and went on to convert it into his fifth double ton. This is also his fifth double century as a captain and he equalled Brian Lara's record.

Rohit - who made a comeback into the Test squad after a gap of a year - slammed his third Test century as the hosts frustrated the visiting side all through the day. It was the third occasion when four Indian batsmen slammed as a hundred each in an innings.

In the company of Rohit, Kohli tightened India's grip on the match against Lanka in the post-tea session of the third day. The declaration came immediately after Rohit completed his century after a gap of four years. The scoreboard read 610/6 as India led the visitors by 405 runs.

The visitors had a bad start as Ishant Sharma gave the opponents their first jolt in the first over itself by removing Sadeera Samarwickrama for a duck. Later, Dimuth Karunaratne (11) and Lahiru Thirimanne (9) batted with caution as visitors reached 21/1 at stumps. They now face a daunting task of overhauling the lead and then take a lead.

While the hosts require nine more wickets to win the game and take 1-0 lead in the series. A lot will depend on India's spin twins R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for they would look dangerous on turning fourth day track.

Earlier, captain Kohli entertained the audiences as he struck his second consecutive century. With his 12th century, Kohli surpassed Sunil Gavaskar's record of 11 tons as India captain.

Cheteshwar Pujara (143) looked unflappable during his 362-ball stay before controversial seamer Dasun Shanaka bowled a yorker to remove the India No 3. Pujara's innings had 14 boundaries. Along with Kohli, Pujara added 183 runs for the third wicket.

Ajinkya Rahane (2) turned out to be a rare failure as Rohit, playing his first Test match in more than a year, breezed through to an unbeaten 102 off 160 balls with some delectable shots.

The boundaries were sheer elegance and he also hit a six off Rangana Herath.

The duo put up a partnership of 173 runs before the skipper departed for 213.

The Sri Lankan bowlers were unable to find an answer to their woes on a benign pitch that had forced one of their bowlers -- Shanaka -- to "alter the condition of the ball" yesterday.

The Sri Lankan bowlers lacked the stomach for a fight which was evident from the fielding placing of Dinesh Chandimal as India started the day at 312 for two.

Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Gamage bowled with deep square leg, deep fine leg and deep extra cover making it clear that they did not want to concede boundaries. The easy singles were there for the taking.

Pujara as usual batted with unwavering concentration as Kohli hit a flowing cover drive. Lakmal strayed on Kohli's legs and the skipper repeatedly whipped the balls through the mid-wicket region for boundaries.

It was a whip to deep midwicket for a single that brought Kohli's 19th hundred in Test cricket. There wasn't any exaggerated celebration this time unlike Kolkata, where he had bailed the team out of trouble.

Sri Lankan team would now be hoping to get over with the disappointing day with the ball and score some runs and return wicketless at stumps.