AUS v IND 2018-19: It's irrelevant, reckons Virat Kohli on his great hundred as India lost the Perth Test

Virat scored 123 in the first innings but India lost the second Test by 146 runs.

India succumbed to a massive defeat in the second Test | Getty

It took Australia's astonishing bowling prowess only an hour into Day 5 to finish off the visitors' batting line-up and seal an absolutely magnificent 146-run victory in the second Test against India at Perth.

Arriving into the day with a sense of inevitability about the proceedings, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc sent back Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant back before quickly running through India's long tail to make a roaring comeback into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

This is where despite that memorable century in the first innings, skipper Virat Kohli labeled his 25th Test ton "irrelevant" as it didn't happen in a winning cause allowing the hosts to level the series, 1-1.

"As a team, I think we played well in patches which we can hold onto. Australia played much better than us with the bat. 330 on that pitch we felt was a bit too much. They deserved to win," Kohli said at the post-match presentation, as he also lavished praise over the Indian fast bowling unit for their efforts, saying, "[Our bowlers] are outstanding as a pack, to see them dominate was really good to see and something we want to build on. They are relentless even if they aren't getting wickets which is a great quality."

"When we looked at the pitch we didn't think about [Jadeja] but I thought Nathan bowled really well. We never thought we wanted to consider a spinner, thought four fast bowlers would be enough."

Virat Kohli - the batsman was outstanding again, though, as he scored a great hundred in the first innings and helped India reach within 43 more runs to Australia's 326.

Kohli, on his way through that inspiring and great 123 also became the second fastest to 25 Test hundreds after Don Bradman, but he said, "When you don't win you don't really rank your performances so it's irrelevant because we didn't get the result we wanted. I'm just focused on the next Test."

(Inputs from cricket.com.au)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 18 Dec, 2018

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