IND v ENG, 5th Test, Day 4 Review: Karun Nair's record breaking triple century highlights India's dominating day

The MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai witnessed yet another epic knock today as Karun Nair, playing in his 3rd Test, hit a fabulous triple century to highlight India’ authoritative batting performance. The venue has the reputation of being acting as the stage knock which can be described as ‘once in a lifetime’ knocks.

From an India’s point of view, it was eight and half years again, in 2008, when Virender Sehwag toyed with South Africa and hit 319, the highest ever by an Indian in Test match. Before, Sehwag no one had managed to get to the triple century mark and today Karun Nair, with the help of his 381 ball batting fiesta has finally broken into the territory which was previously bossed by Sehwag.

Day four was an unsatisfying day despite a dominating batting performance. The reason being KL Rahul and his heart wrenching dismissal at the score of 199. There was an obvious emptiness in the hearts of the Indian fans. They felt the Indian batsman deserved the milestones. This was the highlight of Day three. While all these happened, Karun Nair, his Karnataka teammate, who stitched a 161 stand with him for the 4th wicket and returned unbeaten at 71.

The spotlight was on him and everyone expected him to achieve his maiden century and earn the reward for his hard work. But, to be fair nobody expected him to score a Triple Hundred. No one can boast about this fact.

He went scoring, scoring and scoring runs all the way. Shifting gears with absolute ease to keep run rate at a healthy rate. A total of 177 runs in 25.4 overs. The run rate in the final session hovered close to seven runs in an over as Nair kept flourishing giving a master class in how to play all varieties of sweeps. Ravindra Jadeja’s 55 balls 51 added to the insult of England.

The right-hander went back t the pavilion at Tea leaving everyone excited about him. He was just 5 runs short of his double century. Upon returning, there was slight anxiety due to the Rahul episode. But, nothing as such happened as he went on not only complete his special milestone but also raced towards another highly distinctive landmark.

Nair’s partner at Tea – Ashwin – could not survive to along in the final session and was made to depart at the score of 67 bringing in Jadeja and a message from the dressing room to speed up the run scoring process and get as many runs as possible. The message saw runs come in plenty. Nair who reached his first two centuries in 185 balls and 121 balls respectively, needed just 75 ball to join Sehwag in the 300 runs club. A declaration quickly from Kohli followed putting England to bat again in fading light.

Opening Session

England could only get one wicket in the opening session on Day 4 as Karun Nair slammed his maiden Test century put India just 14 runs away from leaping ahead of England’s first innings total of 477. The placid batting track at the MA Chidambaram Stadium continued to be unresponsive for the bowlers. The only wicket was Murali Vijay who returned to the pavilion after scoring 29.

Counter-attacking has been the preferred approach of batting so far in the match, be it England in the first two days of India so far in the match. After KL Rahul’s classic yet heartbreaking 199, The Indian was backing the other young rising batsman Karun Nair to reach his milestone.

The 25-year-old, who finished at 71 on day 3, continued to flourish and raced to his century with a boundary off Stokes in the 123rd over. He stuck to playing with an attacking instinct and did not mind stepping out and hitting the deliveries over the fence.

Vijay at the other end was batting in his typical style but could bat further than 29 and became left arm spinner, Liam Dawson’s maiden Test wicket trapping the Indian LBW. The pitch showed some unpredictability as odd ones from spinners turned and stayed low. But, those factors could not come into play with Nair continued scoring fluently.

Second session:

If fate doesn’t ditch, like it did in the case of KL Rahul, Karun Nair, his statemate, is all set to achieve the feat that eluded Rahul yesterday. Rahul pressed his dominance over the English bowlers and finished just 5 runs short of a deserving double century.

To give him support from the other end was Ravichandran Ashwin, who was batting at 9 during Lunch, and completed his 10th Test half-century and the third consecutive in the ongoing series. Together the duo ensured England bit the dust in the second session adn stretched the overall lead to 105.

Nari resumed and added runs to his tally with the same fluency he did in the morning after overcoming the nervy start. Cook could not help but watch India’s team total bulge over the 500 runs mark in no time after the break. Left armer Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid started thing off and pretty decently, beating the outside edge on a couple of occasions.

Rashid also created a close LBW chances when Nair failed to connect a reverse sweep. However, DRS came to the rescue and saved Nair. There was no threat anyway as the umpire felt it was not out and had given not out as the soft signal. The appeal, it seemed pumped up Nair who unleashed a few crisp shot sending the ball to the fence. off the bowling of Dawson and Rashid.

It seemed he was easing the pressure off him. The aggressive instinct worked as He began racing towards the double ton. In the meantime, Ashwin, also completed his fifty and the duo together accounted for an unbeaten 147 runs stand for the 6th wicket, standing just 5 runs short of the highest stand of the day which also had Nair at the other end with Rahul.

On England’s part, nothing went their favour. But, part-time bowler Keaton Jennings infused some excitement with his seamers in his short spell including a close LBW call against Ashwin in the last over before tea.

Brief Scores:

England: 477 all out (Moeen Ali 146; Ravindra Jadeja 3/106) & 12/0 (5.0 overs)

India: 759/7d (Karun Nair 303*; Stuart Broad 2/80)