KL Rahul helps India stamp authority on Test

KL Rahul, India's opener, took England's bowlers apart on the third day of the fifth Test and fell just one-run short of his first Test double hundred in Chennai on Sunday.

The right hander batted for more than hundred overs on a day that began with India still 417 runs shy of England's first innings total. When he departed, five overs before stumps on the third day, the hosts had reduced the deficit to 86 with six wickets remaining.

Rahul allied with wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, to add 152 runs for the first wicket, and then Karun Nair for a 161-run stand for the fourth wicket that gave India a chance at forcing a win with two days of cricket remaining.

Having missed the majority of the series due to injury, Rahul needed to find runs in order to justify his opening berth with a busy season at hand. He did just that on Sunday, by playing England's spinners impressively. He made his attacking intentions clear early on, by hitting Liam Dawson for sixes in the third and fifth overs of the morning.

He used his feet comfortably and employed the reverse-sweep to disrupt England's spinners. Rahul's dominance against spin ensured Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali ended the day with a combined economy rate of 4.19 across 41 overs.

India lost four wickets in the course of the day, with Parthiv Patel adding an impressive 112-ball 71, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli falling cheaply and Rahul falling late.

Rahul hit 16 fours and three sixes in his innings. He became the second Indian, after Mohammad Azharuddin, to fall for 199 in a Test. Rahul has four Test hundreds, the most by an Indian opener since the start of 2015. He has four hundreds in 17 innings, compared to Murali Vijay's three in 26 and Shikhar Dhawan's two in 16 during this period.

"This pitch was good, and I didn't want to waste the opportunity," Rahul said, "Missed out on the whole New Zealand series. I thought I was in good form. Went back home, worked on my fitness. Played one Ranji game, that was good to get my flow. I was killing myself I missed out in Wankhede, the wicket was very good."

"This hundred will be on the top of the list. Now you understand what your coach means when he says one run will be important. I'll always have to live with this. I played a horrible shot and got out on 199. I haven't seen the videos. Just been standing under the shower. It will take some time to sink in. I thought I would get a double hundred in ease. Just have to come back stronger. I did discuss with my batting coach [on improvements]. Knowing where my off stump is. I hadn't played enough games, so didn't know where my off stump was. Went back and worked on my basics and Sanjay Bangar said if I stayed inside the crease, I would judge the line better"