New Delhi: It was all about bowlers on day 1 of the India-Sri Lanka 2nd Test being played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. A total of 16 wickets fell on the very first day of the series decider. At Stumps, India had put itself on top by restricting Sri Lanka to 86/6, trailing India by 166 runs.
For Sri Lanka, Niroshan Dikwella remained unbeaten on 13 at stumps while Lasith Embuldeniya is yet to open his account. Angelo Mathews scored 43, Kusal Mendis scored 2, skipper Dimuth Karunaratna scored 4, Lahiru Thirimanne scored 8, Dhananjay de Silva scored 10, and Charith Aslanka scored 5 runs.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah bagged the maximum three wickets, Mohammad Shami picked two wickets, and Axar Patel picked one wicket.
Batting first after winning the toss, India was put in a spot of bother by the Lankan bowlers as the hosts lost four key batters in the form of Mayank Agarwal (4), Rohit Sharma (15), Hanuma Vihari (31), and Virat Kohli (23) into the Tea break.
In-form Shreyas Iyer came out to bat when India was tottering at 86/4. His counter-attack knock (92 runs off 98 balls) rescued India and helped them post a respectable 252-run total. Sadly, the batter narrowly missed out on a ton, by just 8 runs.
India playing XI: Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma (c), Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
Sri Lanka playing XI: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Praveen Jayawickrama