Three cheers for Karun Nair: 100, 200, 303*

It took him two full days. This was only his third Test innings and the first time he had gone past 13. And here he was on the cusp of history.

As it turned out, Karun put both his family and his dressing-room — sat at opposite ends of the MA Chidambaram Stadium — to ease. He calmed their nerves by showing none at all. He took matters into his hands. But it’s not like he went berserk or changed his gameplan drastically. He simply upped the tempo.

Three balls after crossing 250, he launched Moeen Ali over the long-on fence. The next over from Adil Rashid runs flowed more freely. The first ball was a long-hop that was thumped over mid-wicket for six before he brought out the next set in his collection of sweeps. The first was a full ball outside off that was hit hard and sped to the long-leg fence. The next was slightly shorter, which meant the ball went aerial and to the left of the long-leg fielder. Karun was now almost there. Kohli no longer had a decision to make. His young batsman had made it easy for him. The three-hundred, not surprisingly came with a cross-batted shot, a cut that sped past Alastair Cook at point. He took only 33 balls to reach the mythical figure and with that ensured that India had declared their innings leaving England to face five overs under the darkening skies.

The figure 300 has always been built up as the Mt Everest of all batting feats. However, on reaching the milestone, Karun’s expression never changed. The celebration after the 300 was tepid, and was no different from when he raised the bat after his first 50.

Growing up Karun would watch a lot of old footage from the 80s, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev in particular. The story goes that when a visiting England team dropped in at his school, Frank Anthony, a few years ago and one of the guests asked him where he had learnt his technique, he replied: “It is all off TV.”

There isn’t much of Gavaskar or Kapil you see in his technique. He stays low in his stance, and his game is based around playing square of the wicket. The Chepauk wicket was perfectly suited for it. And his wagon-wheel was a testament to that with only 11 runs scored through the mid-off area all innings.

He brought up his 300 in the 2014-15 Ranji final with a reverse-sweep. The sweep is not a shot that many Indian batsmen pride themselves on while facing spin. But Karun thrives on it. 53 runs of his 303 came through the sweep shot. There was the paddle, the square sweep, the fine sweep and the reverse. Judging the length perfectly, he was always in the right position to get on top of the ball. And England simply couldn’t find an answer to stop them.

The only time he even tried the slightly untoward was a few ramp shots and an overhead smash through mid-on that he played off Jake Ball. England tried everything they could. At one point, Alastair Cook had five fielders on the boundary in the range between deep point and deep backward square-leg. The idea was to bowl short and get him to top-edge a hook to one of the five.

It couldn’t have been easy for Karun walking out to bat on Sunday. In a dead rubber, he was probably the only player in the Indian line-up, save Amit Mishra, who had everything to lose. That he was even in the XI was a case of providence. If Ajinkya Rahane hadn’t been hit on the finger during the final net session on the eve of the Wankhede Test, Karun might well have had to be content for now with a single Test appearance where he was run-out by his captain.

Composed as ever

Perhaps it helped that he had Rahul at the other end at the start of his innings. The two have after all played their cricket together since the age of 13. And as his parents reveal they have also been the closest of friends. Karun had been at hand to witness Rahul’s heartbreak play out in front of him from the non-striker’s end on Sunday. Not like it seemed to have any effect on him. He looked as composed as ever even as the milestones kept ticking by.

Karun has been successful and consistent in the IPL — he was Delhi Daredevils’ second-highest run-getter last season — without really possessing an expansive game that you would call T20 material. But what he’s good at is pacing his innings, a characteristic that was on full display during his triple-ton. If he took 185 balls to get to his maiden ton, the second came off 121 and the third needed only 75 balls.

But even those last 50 runs weren’t all just power-hitting. He showed a lot of street-smartness in getting Jonny Bairstow to shy at the stumps after missing a sweep shot, and using wicket-keeper’s error in stealing a single. He was smart enough to walk his singles but still ready to scamper across for a couple when Jadeja was on strike. He also manipulated the well spread-out field excellently, by finding the gaps not just for boundaries but also for the additional run.

There were a couple of inevitably anxious moments towards the end as England at least managed to keep him quiet for a couple of balls, an lbw appeal on 299 off the ball before he reached the landmark. It was ironically off a sweep that he missed. Then came the final boundary, incidentally in the same direction where Rahul had been caught nearly 24 hours earlier. The celebrations were muted.

After the game, he was asked whether there was anything in life that gets him excited, especially considering that even the 300 didn’t seem to have. Even as the rest of the room broke into laughter, he simply smiled and said, “There are a lot of things that go in my head that I want to do but at that moment it just doesn’t come out. I think I will just have to get more hundreds for me to show emotion.” So when and where do you show this emotion? Pat

So when and where do you show this emotion? Pat came the reply, “There is always the shower to do all these things.”

1, 2, 3… Triple in Numbers

# Karun Nair became the first Indian to convert his maiden Test hundred into a triple. Gary Sobers (365 not out) and Bob Simpson (311) are the only others.

# Only two batsmen, Don Bradman and Michael Clarke, aside of Karun have scored a triple at No 5 or lower down the order.

# It took Karun only three Test innings — the least by any batsman — to score a triple hundred. He broke the record of England great Len Hutton, who took nine innings to score his first triple century. It’s also the third highest score by an Indian in Tests.

# Only five batsmen have scored triple hundreds at a younger age than Karun (25 years, 13 days). The youngest is Gary Sobers, who was only 21 years and 216 days when he scored 365 against Pakistan in Kingston. The others are Don Bradman, Len Hutton, Hanif Mohammed and Brian Lara.

# Karun Nair made 232 runs (in 245 deliveries) on the fourth day alone. This is the third highest by an Indian batsman in a day’s play. The highest and the second highest are in Virender Sehwag’s name (284 vs Sri Lanka and 257 vs South Africa).