Rohit Sharma was on 96. He had been farming the strike in a 55-run last-wicket partnership until then. Mohammed Shami had scored just one of those 55. Such was Rohit's control of the strike. Now all nine men were back near the boundary. Rohit punched the third ball of a Shane Shillingford over straight to deep cover. And he set off. It was surprising because he had been taking singles only on the fourth ball of the previous overs or even later. Had the proximity to the hundred, which could be his second in as many Tests, got to Rohit?
No. Rohit had seen something we hadn't. The ball was hit towards Chris Gayle. In that split second, Rohit's mind calculated that he had played this towards the slowest man on the field, who would have had to come in a little to prevent the second. Gayle couldn't. And the next ball he placed for a single, leaving Shami only two to face. In those two balls, moving from 96 to 99, Rohit displayed his manoeuvring skills and confidence as a No. 6 batsman who will need to bat with the tail a lot in the future.
Rohit did enjoy some luck no doubt - he was caught off a no-ball, he benefitted from a player not picking the ball and getting lobbed at the boundary and, most importantly, he was up against a clueless attack - but he showed both the hunger and the willingness to take on the responsibility of doing all the scoring. Rohit was on 45 when the ninth wicket fell so the hundred couldn't have been a motivation. It would have been easy to throw his bat around or take the singles and let Shami go after the bowling and take a not-out against his name.
However, he chose to take as many runs as he could without taking risks. India were only 233 ahead when Shami joined Rohit, and being asked to bat again was a distinct possibility. By the end of the partnership, India had left West Indies needing their best effort of the series to deny India a second innings victory and three-day finish of the series. Rohit did most things in the partnership: turning down singles in the first half of the over while finding gaps for couples, taking singles towards the end, finding a boundary if the single became elusive. He once even chipped nonchalantly when long-on was back to the last ball of an over.
No. Rohit had seen something we hadn't. The ball was hit towards Chris Gayle. In that split second, Rohit's mind calculated that he had played this towards the slowest man on the field, who would have had to come in a little to prevent the second. Gayle couldn't. And the next ball he placed for a single, leaving Shami only two to face. In those two balls, moving from 96 to 99, Rohit displayed his manoeuvring skills and confidence as a No. 6 batsman who will need to bat with the tail a lot in the future.
Rohit did enjoy some luck no doubt - he was caught off a no-ball, he benefitted from a player not picking the ball and getting lobbed at the boundary and, most importantly, he was up against a clueless attack - but he showed both the hunger and the willingness to take on the responsibility of doing all the scoring. Rohit was on 45 when the ninth wicket fell so the hundred couldn't have been a motivation. It would have been easy to throw his bat around or take the singles and let Shami go after the bowling and take a not-out against his name.
However, he chose to take as many runs as he could without taking risks. India were only 233 ahead when Shami joined Rohit, and being asked to bat again was a distinct possibility. By the end of the partnership, India had left West Indies needing their best effort of the series to deny India a second innings victory and three-day finish of the series. Rohit did most things in the partnership: turning down singles in the first half of the over while finding gaps for couples, taking singles towards the end, finding a boundary if the single became elusive. He once even chipped nonchalantly when long-on was back to the last ball of an over.
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