Colombo: To see Cheteshwar Pujara score Test centuries has become quite a regular sight now. On the first day of the second test match between India and Sri Lanka in Colombo, the right-handed batsman playing his 50th Test made the occasion a memorable one as he notched up his 13th Test ton and also reached the 4000-run mark in 84 innings, equalling the legendary Rahul Dravid who too took the same amount of innings to reach to the milestone. Only Sunil Gavaskar (81) and Virender Sehwag (79) are ahead in the list.
Needless to say, he is quite beautifully filling in the shoes for, ‘The Wall’ in the Indian test team.
Earlier, skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat first. India began with Shikhar Dhawan, who played a gem of innings in the first innings of the first test match and KL Rahul, who was playing after a long break.
The openers put on 56 runs in just 10.1 overs before Dilruwan Perera sent back Shikhar Dhawan who was looking well settled at 35. Rahul then shared a 53-run stand with Pujara before an ugly mix up resulted in the demise of a promising 57 from the Karnataka batsman.
The Sri Lankans further started to make a comeback in the match as the Rangana Herath-Angelo Mathews got rid of the dangerous Virat Kohli for just 13 runs leaving the Indians at 133/3.
But Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane has other plans as they took it upon themselves to continue India’s dominance over the game. After Pujara’s ton, Ajinkya Rahane, who was dropped on 80 by debutant Malinda Pushpakumara reached his ninth Test ton and his first in 18 innings.
This was also Rahane’s sixth Test ton outside India which goes to show how important he is to the Indian batting especially on overseas tours.
The duo stitched an unbeaten 211-run stand that helped India end the day in a high at 344/3 with Pujara on 128* and Rahane on 103*, from where they would build on in the second day. The hosts continued to have a miserable time in the field and their problems would further increase as Nuwan Pradeep, their lead bowler had a hamstring injury, the exact nature of which is unknown. His unavailability on the second day would indeed be a huge setback for the hosts.