Halfway through the second session of the second day of the Duleep Trophy final, South’s opener KL Rahul pushed Central’s leg-spinner Piyush Chawla towards mid on for a single to bring up his century. It was an emphatic knock. In the context of the match, it put South on course to a big — and potentially decisive — total in reply to their opponents’ 276 in the first innings. From an individual’s point of view also it was significant, watched as it was by two national selectors —Saba Karim and Vikram Rathour.

Therefore it was somewhat surprising that the 22-year-old didn’t quite jump out of his skin after reaching the three-figure mark. He, in fact, barely celebrated. An apologetic wave of the bat, and he was back to business. It could be that he didn’t want to be to be content with just a ton, and as it turned out he wasn’t. Having put the helmet back on, Rahul continued in the same vein. By the time he walked back, he was unbeaten on 168 — his highest first-class score — as South took a lead of 32 runs with six wickets in hand.

Combined with the knowledge that he had scored 1033 runs in the last Ranji season, and that the selectors may be on a lookout for a third opener for the long and testing Australia tour, the right-hander seems to have thrown his hat in the ring. It may or may not be enough to merit a selection on November 4, but his name will likely be discussed alongside Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag’s, both of whom watched the youngster’s flawless effort from the Kotla pavilion.

“I am not thinking too far ahead,” Rahul said. “Right now I am enjoying my cricket. Just want to play a big innings and if any opportunity comes, I will be very happy. The only thing I have learnt from my previous innings is to make the opportunity count. Earlier, I used to throw away my wicket after getting set, but now I want to score really big ones,” said Rahul, whose best before Thursday was 158.

He surpassed that by making batting look easy, which was not the case on Day 1 with Central’s batsmen struggling. Or, for that matter, early this morning when Robin Uthappa looked shaky against the new ball. Or, in the afternoon when medium pacer Pankaj Singh triggered a mini-collapse with his reverse swing.

Rahul was in the zone right from the first ball. His balanced stance and still head helped him play the early swing and movement with ease. His batting was uncomplicated. Short ball, backfoot; full ball, front foot. Forget troubling him, beating Rahul seemed like a difficult task for Pankaj and Ishwar Pandey. His classic off drives and pull shots, interspersed with judicious leaves, made it hard for the Central bowlers. What made it doubly frustrating was his propensity to rotate the strike every now and then which didn’t allow them to set him up. In all, Rahul ran 50 singles and 13 doubles and hit 18 fours and two sixes.

The standout feature of Rahul’s innings was his backfoot play. Both Pankaj and Ishwar tested him with short-pitched deliveries, but his compulsive pulling forced them to bowl fuller. They kept a deep square-leg for Rahul, but the Karnataka lad confidently pierced the gap with his grounded hooks and pulls. “Backfoot shots give you confidence. Bowlers immediately keep fielders for me in the deep but I make sure that I keep my shots grounded. I enjoy the duel,” Rahul added.

Out of their depth

Not only the seamers, the spinners too were taken apart. Rahul went on to the backfoot to length balls by Chawla and Ali Murtaza and employed the late cut to good effect. Consequently, the spinners ended up bowling fuller. Rahul then latched on to the half volleys, executing drives to perfection. Off Chawla, he jumped out twice and plastered the bowler for sixes. Later, Rahul even played a couple of reverse sweeps off off-spinner Jalaj Saxena.

“I am generally very positive against spinners. As an opener, I try to survive fast bowlers. So if I miss out against the spinners too, it will be difficult to get a big score. So I generally charge at the spinners and try to play with their lengths,” said Rahul.

In his company, after the initial struggle, Uthappa too flourished. The duo put up 168 for the opening wicket before Uthappa was trapped in front by Saxena at 80. Baba Aparajith, Dinesh Karthik and R Prasanna fell in quick succession to Pankaj’s old-ball guile, but Rahul was unflappable and took the team past Central’s total and then 300.

Finally, a semblance of relief came to Chawla’s team in the form of stumps. The self-effacing Rahul walked with the unbeaten Hanuma Vihari towards the dressing. No celebration still, no wave of the bat. Only a look of determination: that he would come back for more tomorrow.

Brief scores: South Zone 308/4 in 69 overs (KL Rahul batting 168, R Uthappa 80, G Hanuma Vihari batting 38, P Singh 3/55) vs Central Zone 276.