An agonising moment arrived for India and their wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant towards the end of a successful first day of the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, when the explosive batsman was beaten by a delivery that came slightly into him, passed through the gap between bat and pad and crashed into his wickets, denying him a deserving century by 4 runs.
It was an agonising moment because until then, India had had a perfect day, all of their batsmen showcased intent and form to propel their side to a strong total, and Pant, who was promoted at No 5 ahead of a specialist middle order batsmen Shreyas Iyer, had done his job to perfection.
On his good days, Pant has rattled and demolished the best bowlers in the conventional format playing the game the way only he knows — one that is replete with breathtaking strokeplay, audacity as well as adroitness. And Friday was no different when Pant began hammering an already-demoralised Sri Lankan bowling attack, hitting an overall 9 boundaries and 4 sixes to make a 97-ball 96.
Indeed, Pant was unfortunate to have missed out on a deserving century but his innings powered India past the 350-run mark, with the home side piling up of strong total of 357/6 at stumps on the opening day on Friday, which saw only 85 overs being sent down.
While Pant’s innings was the highlight for India on the opening day of this short Test series against Sri Lanka, the home team will be pleased with the fact that almost all of their batsmen chipped in with vital runs.
The opening pair of R Sharma and Mayank Agarwal added 52 runs inside first 10 overs of the day to put batting on track of a dominating day with the bat, their middle-order pair of Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli added 90 runs for the third wicket, and when things began looking slightly difficult as far as run scoring was concerned, the pair of Pant and Ravindra Jadeja quashed all doubts with a spectacular 104-run stand for the sixth wicket which took only 118 balls.
R Sharma would have been disappointed when he played a short ball from Lahiru Kumara straight into the hands of Suranga Lakmal at deep fine leg, falling for a 28-ball 29 for which he had already hit 6 boundaries. His opening partner Agarwal perished soon after, trapped leg before by Sri Lanka spinner Lasith Embuldeniya for a 49-ball 33, studded with 5 boundaries.
With India stuttering in the middle stage of the day, their new No 3 batsman Vihari and former captain Kohli teamed up to take their side ahead. Vihari and Kohli added 90 runs for the third wicket to consolidate for India with the former bringing up a fine half-century.
Vihari was dismissed by Sri Lanka left-arm fast bowler Vishwa Fernando, who was punished by the Indian batsmen throughout this spell on the opening day for being an attic. Fernando, however, got rid of Vihari, getting a ball that took an inside edge off the bat and crashed into the leg stump, which was uprooted.
Playing in his 100th Test for India, Kohli looked calm and composed at the crease and determined for a big knock. The former India captain displayed impeccable defence both on the front foot as well as on the back foot, but he was eventually undone by Embuldeniya after he brought up his 8,000 runs in Test cricket. Kohli was beaten by a delivery which spun away from him but not enough to miss the stumps, crashing into his off stump and ending his innings at a 76-ball 45 with 5 boundaries.
The pair of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer did well to add 53 runs for the fifth wicket, but it was the sixth-wicket stand between Pant and Jadeja which really took the Sri Lankans by surprise. Pant and Jadeja added 104 runs for the sixth wicket, with both the left-handed batsmen making merry against a tired visiting bowling attack.
With a significant score on the board, India will look to bat as long as possible on the second day of the opening Test in order to get to a score from where they can inflict a possible defeat by an innings on the visitors.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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