If wishes were horses beggars would ride. This is very much true as Kohli missed this adage when he focussed away from reality, intent on getting his 18th test hundred and in the bargain a great opportunity to beat Sri Lanka was lost.
The Calcutta test was marred by rain and bad weather and Lanka had the upper hand for most of the test days. The crucial period was the last day and everybody knew from experience of earlier days that the sun sets early in this part of the country and the bad light comes into play. On each of the
earlier days, the umpires had called off play much before scheduled close and the mandatory 90 overs were never bowled in this test.On the last day, India was well ahead after a Stirling knock by Dhawan of 94. Kohli was batting and time was ticking away. Conditions were bad for batting and it was on the cards that Lanka would have a tough time negotiating the second innings. Kohli was
intent on getting his test hundred and in the process, he wasted precious time. Perhaps he wanted to reach the personal landmark of 50 centuries and so prolonged the innings by at least half an hour.This wastage of time to achieve a personal landmark is unacceptable in a team game and one hopes that the coach Ravi Shastri will take note of this. The result is that India batted on and Kohli duly got to 104 not out. But it was a delayed declaration and when Lanka batted they were 76 for 7 till bad light called a halt to the game. A great chance for a sensational victory was frittered away as Kohli did get his 18th test ton, but the game lost out and the chance of going one up on Lanka was lost. This is a real pity and one hopes that the next time better sense prevails on Kohli.
