India were bowled out by Sri Lanka for 252 all out in
their first innings of the pink-ball Test on day 1 of the second Test at the M
Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Here are five key takeaways from India’s first innings:
Misjudgment
At his home venue, Mayank Agarwal was dismissed bizarrely
when he was run out on Saturday in the pink-ball Test.
The incident happened in the second over of India’s
innings in the day/night Test. In the fourth delivery of the match, Sri Lanka’s
Vishwa Fernando’s ball appeared to have hit Mayank’s pad first. The Sri Lankans
made an appeal for lbw but the umpire did not seem convinced and rejected the
appeal.
As Sri Lankan players appealed, Mayank tried to snatch a
single without noticing that Praveen Jayawickrama had almost collected the
ball. Rohit, measuring the danger at the other end, sent Mayank back but the
right-hander had charged too far down the wicket. Jayawickrama lobbed it back
towards Sri Lanka keeper Niroshan Dickwella with Mayank having no chance to
return to the crease on time.
Dickwella then started to signal for an LBW review,
before whipping the bails off. He took the bails off a moment later and made
the ‘T’ signal again but the third umpire informed that Fernando had
overstepped. Since it was a no-ball, the LBW appeal did not stand but the
run-out did as Mayank had to leave the field, with his skipper Rohit Sharma
wearing a bemused look on his face.
Virat Kohli’s struggle
Former captain Virat Kohli’s search for the 71st
international hundred continues. What is more worrying about Kohli’s batting is his weakness against the
Sri Lankan spinners. In the Mohali Test, Kohli was dismissed by left-arm
spinner Lasith Embuldeniya in India’s only innings at IS Bindra PCA Stadium in
Mohali. Kohli had scored 45 there before being castled by Embuldeniya. In the
second Test, he was trapped in front for lbw by another left-arm spinner
Praveen Jayawickrama. Kohli fell for 23.
Rohit Sharma’s lean patch
Rohit Sharma made his Test captaincy debut with a comprehensive victory over Sri Lanka but he failed to impress with the bat. In the first Test, he could not do much. Now in the second Test, he was dismissed by Embuldeniya for 15.
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Rishabh Pant’s cameo
After missing the hundred by four runs in the first Test, Rishabh Pant decided to go after the Sri Lankan bowlers from the very onset of his
innings. The southpaw smashed 39 off 26 balls to rattle the Lankan bowlers a
bit. Pant smashed seven boundaries. He also shared a crucial 40-run partnership with
Shreyas Iyer.
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Shreyas Iyer’s gutsy knock
When most of the Indian batters struggled to negotiate
with Sri Lankan bowlers, Shreyas Iyer was the brightest spot in India’s
innings. The right-handed batter, walking into bat at No. 6, played a
blitzkrieg knock to dismantle the line and length of Sri Lankan bowlers. In
India’s 252 all-out innings, Iyer consumed only 98 deliveries and scored 92. He has hit 10
boundaries and four sixes to help India post the modest total on board.