Mohali Test, Day 1: Pant misses ton; India compile 357/6
India were in the driving seat on Day 1 of the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka at the IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. They compiled 357/6, with Rishabh Pant being their top scorer (96). The young wicket-keeper fell short of his fifth century in Test cricket. Hanuma Vihari, who got promoted to number three, also looked solid. Here is Day 1 report.
How did Day 1 pan out?
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma elected to bat in the first Test. He shared a 52-run stand with Mayank Agarwal before getting dismissed. The latter too departed in the 19th over. India resumed the second session on 109/2. Kohli and Vihari shared a 90-run stand before Embuldeniya knocked over the former (45). Pant, Shreyas Iyer, and Ravindra Jadeja guided India to 357/6 (stumps).
Pant shared two stands with Iyer and Jadeja
Pant came in the middle when India were reduced to 170/3. Lasith Embuldeniya had broken the crucial stand between Virat Kohli and Hanuma Vihari. Pant then shared two pivotal stands with Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja, respectively. Suranga Lakmal dismissed Pant in the final session. The former fired 96 off 97 balls (9 fours and 4 sixes).
Kohli registers 8,000 Test runs
Former captain Kohli became the sixth Indian to cross the 8,000-run mark in Tests. Kohli is presently the sixth-highest run-scorer for India in the format after Sachin Tendulkar (15,921), Rahul Dravid (13,288), Sunil Gavaskar (10,122), VVS Laxman (8,781), and Virender Sehwag (8,586).
A special moment for Virat Kohli
Rohit and Kohli attain these feats
Rohit is playing his first Test as India's full-time captain. He has become the second-oldest Test captain (34 years 308 days) for India in the last 60 years after Anil Kumble (37 years 36 days). Kohli has become the second batter to score his 8,000th run in his 100th Test match after Ricky Ponting. It was his 169th innings in Test cricket.
A look at other notable numbers
India have scored 300+ runs (while batting first on Day against Sri Lanka) in four of the last five Tests. The scores are - 385/6 (Ahmedabad, 2009), 417/2 (Kanpur, 2009), 17/3 (Kolkata, 2017), 371/4 (Delhi, 2017), 357/6 (Mohali, 2022). India have scored 350+ runs on the opening day of a Test for the 14th time (six of those instances have come against Sri Lanka.