India vs South Africa: KL Rahul earned a brilliant ton in the first Test© AFP
KL Rahul's courageous century during the ongoing opening Test against South Africa here on Wednesday drew high praise from the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, who has rated the knock “among the top ten in the history” of India's red-ball cricket. Rahul, who walked into the middle on Tuesday with the Indians trailing by four for 92 on Day 1, made a gutsy 101 off 137 balls before being bowled over by debutant pacer Nandre Burger with the visitors all out for 245.
Commenting in Hindi on Star Sports, Gavaskar claimed that Rahul's hit had come on a difficult surface, where the ball was behaving erratically, and felt that the confidence required to bat on such a track must be immense .
“I have been watching cricket for over 50 years now and I can say without a doubt that this century of Rahul has to be in the top ten of Indian Test history because it is a different pitch here,” Gavaskar said.
“A batsman would not easily gain the confidence he has given, especially if the ball is doing something at any time.” Applauding the six that Rahul hit off Gerald Coetzee to get to his ton, Gavaskar added: “The shot that took him to a hundred, no amount of praise would be enough for it. It was a long ball and he played a shot that you would normally see in T20s. Great!” Rahul's century happened to be his second on this ground. He is now the only overseas batsman to have multiple Test tons here.
With 14 fours and four sixes during his knock, he has also become the second Indian wicketkeeper-batsman, after Rishabh Pant, to hit a Test century in the country.
Rahul also continued his impeccable record by scoring hundreds in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia), with five of his eighth tons coming in these countries.
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