IND vs NZ: ‘Crisis man’ Sarfaraz Khan hits maiden Test hundred in Bengaluru

Sarfaraz Khan hit his maiden Test hundred on Day 4 of the 1st Test between India and New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on October 19, Saturday.

Sarfaraz returned to the playing XI after being benched in the Bangladesh series and made the opportunity count. The Mumbai batter was dismissed for a three-ball duck in the first innings and made the necessary amends to come out all guns blazing in the second innings. He was coming into the match after scoring a match-winning double hundred in the Irani Cup match against Rest of India. Sarfaraz, known for scoring daddy hundreds will only aim to go big and put India in a winning position from here.

In the 57th over, Sarfaraz hit a boundary off Tim Southee’s delivery and the batter had his hands aloft while running with the bat held high. He took his helmet off and showed the bat towards the dressing room. This was only the 22nd instance of an Indian batter registering a duck and a hundred in the same Test. Shubman Gill was the most recent one, as he scored a duck followed by a century against Bangladesh in Chennai. Shikhar Dhawan is the other Indian batter to have scored a hundred after a duck against New Zealand. This happened in Auckland when Dhawan scored a 0 and 115 in Auckland.

Sarfaraz Khan shines

Sarfaraz was joined by Rishabh Pant on the morning of Day 4 after Virat Kohli departed at 70 on the stroke of the last ball yesterday. Pant braved his knee injury and walked out to bat alongside Sarfaraz, who continued batting with a similar intent while also maintaining caution in overcast conditions. Sarfaraz was unbeaten at 70 and reached the three-figure mark in no time. His knock was laced with some audacious hitting which included ramp shots and upper cuts.

When Yashasvi Jaiswal got out stumped, Rohit Sharma scored 16 off the next eight balls he played. Rohit’s freakish dismissal, played on a dead defence, brought out Sarfaraz Khan, who raced away to 23 off 16. Virat Kohli remained serene, but also skipped down the track to hit a six off Ajaz Patel almost as a nod to acknowledge the positive approach. Even the falling wickets failed to slow India down. Kohli and Sarfaraz shared a 136-run stand as they led India’s fightback after the 46 all-out in the 1st innings.