The first Test match between India and Sri Lanka was dominated by the hosts. India posted a total of 357/6, thanks to the fifties from Rishabh Pant and Hanuma Vihari. Pant top-scored for India by scoring 96 in 97 balls but missed his century by just four runs.
Hanuma Vihari also gave a good account of himself, as he scored 58 off 128 deliveries. The pre-match talk was dominated by Virat Kohli as he completed another milestone by playing 100 Tests, but he failed to end the much-awaited wait for his 71st century.
Earlier in the day, Team India's former captain Virat Kohli was felicitated by head coach Rahul Dravid as he gave the 33-year-old a special 100th Test cap. Kohli responded by calling Dravid his 'childhood idol', and thanking BCCI and his family for helping him reach the milestone.
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Rohit Sharma led India for the first time in Test cricket, and the Indian skipper won the toss and chose to bat. In the first session, India lost two early wickets as both Rohit and Mayank Agarwal were dismissed under 80 runs
The opening pair put up a 52-run stand before Lahiru Kumara broke the partnership by getting rid of the Indian skipper. Mayank was given out LBW after some clever bowling from Lasith Embuldeniya.
Team India were able to post a total of 109-2 in the first session, thanks to a decent partnership between Virat Kohli and Hanuma Vihari. The man of the occasion, Virat was bowled by Embuldeniya when he was playing at 45 soon after.
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Vihari could only score 58 off 128 balls before Vishwa Fernando bowled the former.
Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer did a great job of steadying the ship before Iyer was dismissed by Dhanajaya de Silva on 27. Pant continued his onslaught, and Jadeja joined the southpaw in the middle.
Together, they propelled India past 300 before Suranga Lakmal broke Indian hearts as he bowled Pant who was just four runs short of his century.
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Ravindra Jadeja (45 off 82) and Ravichandran Ashwin (10 off 11) remained unbeaten at stumps on Day 1 as India continued their recent good run against Sri Lanka.
