After eight
years and 74 innings in the longest format, opener Rohit Sharma brought up his
maiden century away from home on day three of the ongoing fourth Test against
England at London’s Kennington Oval on Saturday.

The knock
helped India take control of the match and convert a 56-run trail at the start
of the day into a 137-run lead when he was finally dismissed by Ollie Robinson
for 127 runs from 256 balls.

Congratulatory
messages flooded in on social media from all across the cricket fraternity soon
after Sharma danced down the track to hoist a Moeen Ali delivery for six runs at
long on to bring up a memorable century.

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“A top
class innings from a high class player. Take a bow #RohitSharma . Could well be
a series defining innings. Come on, let’s get a big lead,” batting legend VVS
Laxman said in a tweet.  

“The
transformation of #RohitSharma into a world class opening batsman has been
staggering. This century was inevitable given the way he has batted in this
series. Privileged to see this. Class,” cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted.

“Shaandar
Zabardast Zindabad. When the going gets tough the tough get going. Outstanding
first overseas Test hundred from #RohitSharma . Class !” former Indian opening
batsman Virender Sehwag said.

“Because u
just scored your first overseas hundred!! Hitman you beauty,” former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh said.

Check out
some other reactions:

Sharma stitched
a valuable 153-run partnership for the second wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara, who himself brought up
his 32nd Test fifty. That stand came after Sharma added 83 runs to the board along
with opening partner KL Rahul – who was unlucky to miss out on a half-century,
dismissed by James Anderson shortly before Lunch.

Sharma’s
innings saw him cross a number of milestones, including reaching 11,000
international runs as opener, 3,000 runs in Test cricket and 1,000 international
runs in 2021. He is India’s top-scorer in the series so far, with his 368 runs
in eight innings only behind Joe Root’s 528 from six innings.