India vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test: Record-breaking Virat Kohli lights up 'masked' Delhi on Day 2

Playing in his 63rd Test, Kohli scored his record sixth Test double hundred, second on the trot for the Indian captain. He thus became the first ever captain to hit six double centuries in Test cricket.

Courtesy: BCCI

New Delhi: India continued to dominate Sri Lanka on Day 2 of the third and final Test in Delhi with skipper Virat Kohli on a record-breaking spree. At the close of play, India were still leading the visitors by a huge 405 runs, after reducing Sri Lanka to 131/3 at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Sunday.

Resuming the day at the overnight score of 371/4, India added another 165 runs to declare at 536/7 in 127.5 overs. The declaration came soon after Kohli got out with an individual score of 243 runs – his highest score in Test cricket.

Kohli was trapped LBW by chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan with the ball turning more than expected, and thus ending India captain's pursuit of a maiden triple hundred.

But the 29-year-old Delhi batsman celebrated his double hundred with hosts of records.

Playing in his 63rd Test, Kohli scored his record sixth Test double hundred. This is also the second double century on the trot for the Indian captain.

He thus became the first ever captain to hit six double centuries in Test cricket, going past West Indies great Brian Lara, who held the record previously with five double tons.

Kohli also emulated equaled Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag for a maximum number of double hundreds for India in Tests.

Continuing with records, he is also only the second Indian after Vinod Kambli to score back-to-back double hundreds. In 1993, the former left-handed batsman had scored 224 against England in Mumbai and 227 against Zimbabwe in Delhi.

Overall, Kohli is in the sixth place in the list of most double hundreds in a career, which is topped by Australian legend Don Bradman (12), followed by Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (11), Lara (9), England's Wally Hammond (7) and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene (7).

Yesterday, Kohli had become the first captain to hit three successive hundreds in a three-Test series.

On Day 1, he also completed 5000 runs in the longest version of the game, becoming the 11th Indian batsman to achieve the milestone.

Kohli took 105 innings to cross the 5000-mark, becoming the fourth fastest to achieve the feat in terms of innings behind Sunil Gavaskar (95), Virender Sehwag (99) and Sachin Tendulkar (103).

Rohit Sharma gave Kohli support from the other end as India put on a mammoth score. He scored 65 runs off 102 balls, before becoming Sandakan's fourth scalp. Wriddhiman Saha (9) and middle-order batsman Ravindra Jadeja (5) were at the crease when Kohli decided to declare.

Then, Indian bowlers took over, with Mohammed Shami striking first ball. Shami managed to extract good enough bounce and Lankan opener Dimuth Karunaratne got a thick outside edge. Caught behind.

Exactly five overs later, local boy Ishant Sharma trapped Dhananjaya de Silva (1) in front to reduce the visitors to 14/2. Ravindra Jadeja then removed Dilruwan Perera (42) in the 19th over.

Experienced Angelo Mathews (57) and Dinesh Chandimal (25)steadied the Lankan boat with an unbeaten 56-run fourth-wicket stand.

But, the Delhi Test will go down as the first match to have witness stoppages due to pollution. With the pollution level spiking again in the national capital, the play was halted for 17 minutes in the post-lunch session after visiting players, led by their skipper Dinesh Chandimal, complaining of severe pollution. It's reported that Lahiru Gamage experienced breathing trouble while playing the match.

The Lankans were seen wearing anti-pollution masks during the post-lunch session. The play was halted between 12:32 pm to 12:49 pm after which the umpires and match referee David Boon convinced them to continue.

However, there was another stoppage of play in the 127th over when Lakmal walked off the field after bowling the fifth ball. The umpires once again got together, chatting with Chandimal and Angelo Mathews. Sri Lanka manager Asanka Gurusinha and India coach Ravi Shastri also joined in.