CRICKET
Day 1: Indian batters make Sri Lanka toil
A quick-fire 96 from Rishabh Pant helped India to score 357 runs on the board with the loss of 6 wickets.
Hanuma Vihari also scored a half-century batting at no 3.
Virat Kohli missed out on his hundred in his 100th Test match as he was dismissed by Embuldeniya on 45 runs.
Jadeja is still unbeaten on 45 runs alongside Ashwin who is batting on 10 runs and both of them will continue their batting on day 2.
India 1st innings 357-6
Pant 96 (97) Embuldeniya 2-107 Vihari 58 (128) de Silva 1-47 Kohli 45 (76) Kumara 1-52
Rohit and Agarwal gave a very quick start to the Indian side after electing to bat first at the toss.
They played aggressively in the start to put an excellent 52 run stand from just 53 balls for the opening wicket.
Rohit Sharma got caught out while playing a pull shot by the fielder at long-leg.
He scored 29 runs off 28 deliveries including 6 beautiful fours.
Mayank Agarwal also failed to convert his good start into a big knock aa he got LBW out by Lasith Embuldeniya on 33 runs.
The partnership between Vihari and Kohli
Hanuma Vihari was surprisingly promoted to no 3 and he proved that decision right with his superb batting.
Vihari scored an outstanding half-century and shared a 90 run partnership with Virat Kohli who was playing his 100th Test match.
Virat also played brilliantly and he was looking in a great touch to score his 71st international hundred in his 100th match but unfortunately, he was bowled out on 45 runs on an extraordinary delivery from Embuldeniya.
After the gap of just two overs, Hanuma Vihari was also bowled out on 58 runs by the pacer Fernando.
Rishabh Pant’s magnificent 96
India was 4 down on 175 runs when Rishabh Pant arrived and once again he smacked a wonderful knock when his team was needing him to perform.
Pant took charge against the Lankan bowlers especially against the spinners to disturb their line and lengths.
He smashed 5 sixes and 9 fours in his knock of 96 runs that came off just 97 deliveries.
Pant missed his century by just 4 runs and this was the 4 time in 9 innings that he got out in the 90s in India.
He was brilliantly supported by Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja and built up crucial partnerships against the Sri Lankan bowlers.
Shreyas Iyer was given LBW out after scoring 27 runs by the part-time spinner Dhananjaya de Silva while Ravindra Jadeja remained unbeaten right till the end of play on day 1.
He is batting on 45 runs and he will try to add as many runs as possible on day 2 in India’s 1st innings total.
Lasith Embuldeniya picked up two important wickets while de Silva, Kumara, Fernando, and Lakmal grabbed 1 wicket each.