Day 1: 16 wickets fall, India on top

The pitch on day 1 of the Pink ball Test was offering some turn and bounce but surprisingly the Indian pacers were more successful than the spinners.

Bumrah and Shami collectively grabbed 5 wickets out of those 6 Sri Lankan wickets that fell on day 1.

Axar Patel was the only Indian spinner today to pick up a wicket on day 1.

India posted 252 runs in the first innings thanks to the excellent 92 runs knock from Shreyas Iyer.

India    1^st innings   252 all-out

1. Iyer 92     Jayawickrama 3-84                                                                                                                                 R. Pant 39              Embuldeniya 3-94

Sri Lanka    1^st innings    86-6

Mathews 43          Bumrah 3-15                                                                                                                                  Dickwella 13            Shami 2-18

India completely dominated Day 1 of the Pink ball Test at the fully crowded Chinnaswamy Stadium.

On a spin-friendly pitch, the Indian pacers did the most of the damage and destroyed the Sri Lankan top and middle order with some great lines and lengths under lights.

Mathews was the only Sri Lankan batter who was looking confident against the Indian bowlers.

However, he too was trapped by Bumrah just an over before stumps with a slower one that Mathews guided straight into the hands of Rohit Sharma at the second slip.

Mathews scored a brave 43 runs knock from 85 deliveries including 3 fours and 2 sixes.

Shami and Bumrah destroyed the top order of Sri Lanka within the first 6 overs.

Bumrah first dismissed Kusal Mendis on 2 runs in the 3^rd over and later, Lahiru Thiramane for 8 runs in the 5^th over.

The Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne was bowled out on 4 runs by Mohammad Shami.

Dhananjaya de Silva was given LBW on 10 runs on a superb delivery from Shami and Sri Lanka was 4 down on 28 runs.

Charith Asalanka also had a short stay at the crease and was dismissed by Axar Patel on 5 runs.

Sri Lanka finished day 1 on 86-6 and they are still trailing by 166 runs.

Earlier the Indian team also had a poor start as they lost both of their openers on 29 runs.

Mayank Agarwal was dismissed on only 4 runs due to a bizarre run out while Rohit got an outside edge to second slip after scoring only 15 runs.

Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli played patiently after losing the openers early-on on but both of them failed to convert their good starts into big innings.

Vihari was dismissed on 31 runs while Kohli was shocked after getting LBW out on 23 runs.

Rishabh Pant once again played an aggressive knock under pressure.

Pant was looking in great touch today but he was bowled out by Embuldeniya after scoring 39 runs off just 26 balls.

All the three all-rounders of India didn’t contribute much with the bat today to support Shreyas Iyer who was playing bravely against the Lankan bowlers.

Jadeja, Ashwin, and Axar scored 26 runs collectively.

Shreyas Iyer’s outstanding knock

Shreyas Iyer is proving to be a solid no 5 batter for India in Test cricket since his debut.

Iyer played an impressive knock when his side needed it the most.

The right-handed batter smashed an outstanding knock of 92 runs from just 98 deliveries.

He scored the runs freely against the Lankan spinners.

Not surprisingly, he smacked 10 fours and 4 beautiful sixes in his innings but unfortunately, wasn’t able to complete his well-deserved ton.

This excellent batting performance from Iyer helped team India to reach a respectable total of 252. Jayawickrama and Embuldeniya picked up 3 wickets each.