The India’s first ever pink ball test hundred goes to run machine’s credit

Bangladesh won the toss and India everything else against a ball they are not acquainted with on the first day of their maiden pink ball Test, the quality of contest spectacularly failing to match the manic pre-match hype.

First the Ishant Sharma-led Indian pace unit terrorized the visitors, bundling them out for 106 in just under 31 overs even before twilight set in. With two of their batsmen concussed, the mentally-scarred Bangladesh attack then found itself at the receiving end of a masterclass from the Indian captain Virat Kohli, who remained unbeaten on 59 off 93 balls, as India reached 174/3 at stumps on the opening day of the second Test at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday.

The stodgy Cheteshwar Pujara, with two pink ball hundreds under his belt in first-class cricket, scored a chiselled 55 as India took a 68-run lead.

After becoming the first Indian captain to go past 5000 Test runs on Friday, Kohli on Day 2, became the first batsman to score a century in pink ball Tests in India. His largely untroubled innings was laced with 12 fours. This was Kohli’s 70th international ton and second consecutive one at Eden Gardens. He had scored a century against Sri Lanka in November 2017 too. With this pink ball test ton the mighty Indian skipper has scored his 20th ton as a test skipper

It took about 85 minutes on the first session of Day 2 for the Indian captain to complete his 27th Test hundred. He got there with a couple off Taijul Islam’s bowling in the 68th over.

Riding on Kohli’s century and half-centuries from Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, India took control of the second Test. Rahane, who was started Day 2 on 23, brought up his half-century quickly, but was dismissed after he top-edged one to point off Taijul Islam.

But before that, he stitched together an important 99-run stand for the fourth wicket. This was Kohli and Rahane’s 10th 50+ stand in the last 12 innings together.