IND vs SL 1st Test, Day 1, Highlight: Rishabh Pant & Vihari guide team India to solid score 357/6 till day 1
Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant (96) missed out on scoring a century by just four runs but his brilliant innings from Ravindra Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli helped India beat Sri Lanka here. On the first day of the first Test cricket match, on Friday, made a strong score of 357 runs for six wickets in 85 overs.
After winning the toss, electing to bat first, almost all the batsmen contributed well for India. The first openers Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma gave a good start to the team, although both the batsmen could not play big innings.
After that Vihari and Virat played well and then in the end Pant and Jadeja played excellent innings. Pant, batting explosively, scored 96 runs in 97 balls with the help of nine fours and four sixes, though he missed his fifth Test century by four runs. At the same time, Jadeja scored 45 runs in 82 balls with the help of five fours and remained at the crease. Ravichandran Ashwin is present at the crease with Jadeja and is playing for 10 runs in 11 balls with two fours.
Earlier, Vihari scored a half-century of 58 runs in 128 balls with the help of five fours, while Virat, playing his 100th Test, scored 45 runs off 76 balls with the help of five fours. Apart from this, Mayank, Rohit and Shreyas Iyer scored 33, 29 and 27 runs respectively.
IND vs SL 1st Test Match
Indian batsmen started well but no one could convert them into big scores. The credit for giving momentum and strength to the Indian innings went to Pant. It wasn’t like Pant struck with the first ball today, he took his time at the start and destroyed the Sri Lankan bowling after being set up.
However, Pant got out against the second new ball and was just four runs away from scoring a century. In the third season, a storm named Pant came and took Sri Lanka away with it.
For Sri Lanka, left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya top-scored for 107 runs in 28 overs, while Suranga Lakmal, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjay de Silva took one wicket each. Sri Lanka could bowl only 85 overs on the first day despite 42.1 overs of spin and could be fined for bowling slow overs.
If this happens, then their troubles will keep on increasing. Sri Lanka’s troubles reminded that Lahiru Kumara had gone off the field with an injury and the team would worry about his fitness.