Hanuma Vihari scored his fifth half-century while Rishabh Pant hit a brilliant 96 in Virat Kohli's landmark game against Sri Lanka in Mohali. Kohli and Vihari, the two set batters, departed in quick succession in the second session, leaving India four down on 175. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer then kept the scoreboard moving to help India reach 199/4 at tea. The young pair continued to steady the innings before Shreyas fell in the final session to Dhananjaya de Silva. Ravindra Jadeja then teamed up with Pant as the two took India past 250 in the third session.
Pant eventually stole the show in the final session by scoring an entertaining 96 off just 97 balls. Earlier, Rohit put up a 50-run opening stand with Mayank Agarwal before departing for 29 in the first hour of Day 1. Sri Lanka would have taken six wickets at the start when Rohit decided to bat but they have conceded 357 runs and that's where India walk away with the honors. The game was in the balance at the tea break or even when Iyer departed with the score reading 228, but Pant exploded after that and took the attack to a tired Sri Lankan bowling attack. He raced from 50 to 96 off just 24 balls and his 100+ partnership with Jadeja has put India on course to a score around 400. This is the 14th time India have scored 350+ runs on the opening day of a Test - six of those instances have come against Sri Lanka.
