In Stats: Hardik Pandya Arrives in Test Cricket – With a Bang!

In the 116th over of the Indian innings, Pandya plundered Pushpakumara for 4, 4, 6, 6, 6 off consecutive deliveries!

Hardik Pandya’s maiden Test century, followed by regular strikes by the Indian bowlers, saw Virat Kohli’s team take firm control of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at Pallekele.

India, who resumed day two at 329-6, added 158 runs in 32.3 overs on the day, before being dismissed for 487 – their lowest total yet in the Test series.

Later in the day, after Mohammed Shami had sent the Sri Lankan openers packing in the first five overs, the rest of the Indian bowling attack kept up the pressure on the home team, eventually bundling them out for 135. Virat Kohli then chose to keep up the pressure, forcing Sri Lanka to follow-on.

In the 13 overs of their second innings, the Lankans lost yet another wicket and added 19 to their total.

When play resumes on Day 3, Sri Lanka, who look to salvage some pride by avoiding a whitewash at home, will have an uphill task on their hands to save the Test match; they have not been whitewashed at home since the Australians defeated them 3-0 in 2003-04, and will be desperate to avoid the ignominy.

Pandya Arrives With a Bang

The second day though belonged to Hardik Pandya, who scored his maiden hundred. Pandya’s knock must be celebrated for a variety of reasons. First of all, it was his first century in first-class cricket, and he scored it at the highest level of the game – in Test cricket.

Trivia: Hardik Pandya joined Vijay Manjrekar, Kapil Dev, Ajay Ratra and Harbhajan Singh who had all scored their maiden first-class ton in a Test match.

It wasn’t just the runs alone, but the manner in which Pandya scored the runs that made you sit up and take note of how talented this all-rounder from Baroda was; to score a maiden first-class century in just 86 balls is a special effort.

To play with such freedom in just his third Test match tells you this kid does not fear the big stage. Pandya’s 86-ball hundred in Pallekele was the second-fastest overseas Test hundred by an Indian batsman; only Virender Sehwag’s 78-ball ton was quicker than Pandya’s effort.

During the course of the second day’s play, Pandya turned on the heat – as if to drive home how dominant India have been and expose how the Sri Lankans have been clueless and found wanting in this series.

In the 116th over of the Indian innings, Pandya plundered the left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara for 4, 4, 6, 6, 6 off consecutive deliveries; the 26 runs scored by Pandya in that over set a new record for the most runs scored by an Indian batsman in an over of Test cricket.

By the time he was last man out, in the first over after lunch, Pandya had reached 108 – and his innings was decorated with seven sixes – the most hit by an Indian batsman in an overseas Test. Among Indian batsmen, only Navjot Singh Sidhu – aka Sixer Sidhu – had hit more sixes in a Test innings; he had hit 8 sixes in his innings of 124 against Sri Lanka at Lucknow in 1994.

Pandya was still not done; when the Indian team took the field, the all-rounder from Baroda was back in the thick of things; he picked up the big wicket of Angelo Mathews and then pouched the catch to dismiss Dilruwan Perera.

The last time an Indian cricketer did the treble of scoring a century, taking a wicket and collecting a catch in a Test match was when Ashwin scored 124, took 2 wickets and collected a catch against the West Indies in Sachin Tendulkar’s penultimate Test in 2013!

While Pandya impressed with his pyrotechnics, the rest of the team too put up a united show to bundle out Sri Lanka for just 135. Another youngster in the team, Kuldeep Yadav, finished the first Sri Lankan innings with a haul of 4/40.

After being forced to follow-on, the home team were down to 19/1 at stumps, India just 9 wickets from a historic series sweep.