India's Tour of Sri Lanka 2017, Third Test, Day 1– As it happened...
Overs 90 | Score 329/6 | Pandya 1 (6) ; Saha 13 (38)
Huffing and puffing through the fag end of the day, Team India crossed the 300-run mark. But Lankans have dominated the last two sessions. Run rate has lowered down, boundaries are lesser now and there is a sudden shift in momentum. Vishwa Fernando too got his name on the wicket-takers list. Dismissed R Ashwin as India are now six down. Hardik Pandya stepped in next. 90 overs are up and that is all for Day 1.
Overs 80 | Score 297/5 | Ashwin 17 (51) ; Saha 0 (6)
Lakshan Sandakan sends back Virat Kohli as SL continue with their fightback attitude. Great indeed from the hosts. Wriddhiman Saha stepped in next and soon got a taste of what the Lankans are upto.
Overs 69 | Score 275/4 | Ashwin 6 (15) ; Kohli 30 (63)
Pushpakumara struck back to bag his third wicket as he outfoxed Ajinkya Rahane. Spun the ball right past the bat and then the keeper did the rest. Ravichandran Ashwin walked in next. SL are suddenly enjoying the game now, probably at their best in the entires series till now.
Overs 56 | Score 235/3 | Rahane 3 (19) ; Kohli 11 (28)
Things have changed drastically for the Indians. Dhawan departed falling victim to Pushpakumara and then Pujara departed adding just eight runs to the board. Lankans finally had a big reason to smile. The game suddenly witnessed a slight shift in momentum. Rahane and Kohli are presently at the crease as India headed in for the tea break.
Overs 45 | Score 211/1 | Pujara 2 (17) ; Dhawan 116 (117)
KL Rahul, once again missed out on his century. So close, yet so far. Pushpakumara was the man. Came in for his first over and gave Sri Lanka a chance to smile too. But Dhawan carried on his dream as he notched up his sixth Test ton. His fifth on foreign soil and third in Lanka. Cheteshwar Pujara joined the left-hander at the crease.
Overs 35 | Score 170/0 | Rahul 79 (122) ; Dhawan 87 (90)
India are rampaging through, running riot over the Lankans at Pallekele. 170-run stand already, the highest by an Indian opening pair in 2017. Classy indeed!
Overs 28 | Score 139/0 | Rahul 71 (100) ; Dhawan 65 (68)
India had headed in for lunch with a commendable 134-run opening pair stand. It has been a complete one-sided domination on the part of the visitors. Rahul survives yet another scare. Knicked off the edge and slipped past Angelo Mathews.
Overs 21 | Score 113/0 | Rahul 52 (70) ; Dhawan 57 (55)
Well past 100 now. Shikhar Dhawan notched up his fourth Test fifty while KL Rahul equaled world record for hitting seven consecutive fifty-plus scores in Test cricket – first Indian to do so.
Overs 15 | Score 83/0 | Rahul 36 (54) ; Dhawan 44 (35)
First it was Dhawan and then Rahul survived a scare a couple overs later. The duo is indeed bringing some control into the game. The left-hander is en route to his fifty as well
Overs 10 | Score 53/0 | Rahul 24 (40) ; Dhawan 27 (20)
46 minutes! That is what it took the Indian openers to bring up the 50-run stand. The duo are powering through. What a start to Day 1 of the third Test.
Overs 5 | Score 21/0 | Rahul 9 (21) ; Dhawan 10 (9)
KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan stepped in to open once again for the visitors. Interesting point to note, with ICC banning Jadeja for a match, Virat Kohli is yet to play with the same squad for two consecutive Test matches. This is his 29th Test match as a skipper.
The duo has made a steady start to the innings apart from a scare that Dhawan faced in the third over. Knicked off the edge and sneaked through between the two fielders at slip to whistle away to the boundary.
And...we are off #TeamIndia #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/mPZLZwmLp6
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 12, 2017
TOSS TIME: Virat Kohli wins the toss and elects to bat.
TEAM CHANGES: Kuldeep Yadav comes in for Ravindra Jadeja for India. Lakshan Sandakan, Kumara and Fernando come in for injured Rangana Herath, Nuwan Pradeep and Dhananjaya de Silva, in the Sri Lankan squad.
