Virat Kohli Gets Rare Duck, 5th in Test Cricket

Every time Virat Kohli comes out to bat, cricket fans set themselves up for yet another hundred. Such is the calibre and reliance on the man. Spin legend Shane Warne on Wednesday said that it is uncanny how the India captain scores so many hundreds and so regularly. The Australian is quite true but when he does not score, the scoreboard looks weird. Australian pacer Mitchell Starc made sure the scorecard looked just that on Friday.

Starc claimed the prized scalp of Kohli for a duck as Australia to put India in trouble at 44/3 on Day 2 of the first Test at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Friday.

Kohli's dismissal silenced the crowd and marked a rare failure for the India skipper, who has hit four double-centuries since July last year. Kohli's last duck in a Test was against England in August 2014.

Starc, who hit a gritty 61 in Australia's first innings of 260, took two wickets in the space of three deliveries as the tourists made decisive early inroads into the Indian batting line-up.

Virat Kohli's fifth duck in Tests
Balls faced : 2, 1, 1, 2, 2#IndvAus

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) February 24, 2017

After getting Pujara caught behind off a sharp rising delivery, Starc then got Kohli to edge a wide delivery to first slip where he was comfortably caught by Peter Handscomb.

This was Kohli's only fifth duck and first in India in a Test career which began in June 2011 against the West Indies. This is also his first duck since August 2014.

Sizzling Starc bags Kohli for rare duck on morning of day two: https://t.co/SATGEDoV0t #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/DRQt8YrM76

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) February 24, 2017

The match, Kohli's 55th Test, is the first in a four-Test series between the world's two top-ranked sides.

(With AFP inputs)