IND vs AUS: Steve Smith's gesture touches heart as Virat Kohli receives standing ovation in Ahmedabad

After a ruthless innings of 186 runs, Virat Kohli missed out on his well deserved double century by just 14 runs, as the right-handed batsman mistimed a Todd Murphy delivery to hand over a catch to Marnus Labuschagne at the deep. Naturally enough, it was a heartbreaking moment for the former skipper as the entire stadium rose in awe to celebrate the magnificent innings. 

Virat Kohli received thundering applause and a standing ovation as he made his way out in utter despair. Even the Australians came in to congratulate Kohli after his thunderous innings and that was when he shared a special moment with Aussie skipper Steve Smith.

Smith came to him and extended a congratulatory arm, patting him on his helmet, which got Kohli smiling. This gave fans a sweet moment to cherish in the otherwise hot and boiling series as both the players displayed camaraderie and sportsmanship to keep their on-field rivalry aside.

Both Kohli and Smith are two of the best batters of the world in modern cricket and such a gesture coming to the fore despite the cut-throat competition between the two is definitely a good thing for the game. This stands out as a representation of how friendship triumphs even the toughest of all competitors. Both Kohli and Smith have represented their respective teams in 108 and 96 matches respectively, in which Kohli has added 8,416 runs to his name while Smith has managed to amass 8,782 runs.

This gesture was acknowledged by the BCCI as well, who took to Twitter to share a photograph of this special moment, rightfully captioning it as "Respect and admiration". 

BCCI@BCCI

📸 Respect and admiration 👏👏 #TeamIndia | #INDvAUS | @mastercardindia

05:02 PM · Mar 12, 2023

17.8K1.1K

This was Kohli's first century in over three years as he broke a long-standing drought after last scoring a ton in the whites against Bangladesh in 2019 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

India take a 91-run lead to keep themselves in command

Earlier on the fourth day, India resumed operations from their overnight score of 289/3 and added 20 runs on the board before losing Jadeja to Todd Murphy. Kohli then stitched a 94-run partnership with Srikar Bharat for the fifth wicket and an even bigger partnership of 162 runs with Axar Patel, who scored a valuable 79 off 113 deliveries.

After finishing the third day on 59, the star batter resumed the proceedings today as he hit 15 boundaries to score 186 runs over a span of 364 deliveries.

Riding on Kohli's heroics, India took a first innings lead of 91 runs in the ongoing match, as the team was eventually bundled out for 571 runs. For Australia, Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy took 3 wickets apiece.

At the end of Day 4, Australian openers Travis Head and Matthew Kuhnemann, who came in with night-watchman duties, managed to hold ground for six overs, scoring 3 runs in the process.

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