Suranga Lakmal bowled a phenomenal spell of fast bowling and left the Indian team reeling on a rain-affected opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
Only 11.3 overs could be possible on the first day of the match as bad light forced the officials to call for early stumps after Lakmal had dismissed the Indian top-order without conceding a single run.
The entire first session was washed out and the toss could take place only at 1 PM after early lunch was taken by the officials. The visitors sent India to bat first in the overcast conditions and Lakmal made full use of it as he dismissed India opener KL Rahul on the first ball of the match itself.
Rahul became only the third Indian batsman ever to be dismissed for a golden duck at the Eden Gardens after he edged the ball straight into the hands of wicket-keeper Dickwella.
Then came, Mr. dependable Cheteshwar Pujara and took charge of the innings at one end while Shikhar Dhawan was craving to free his arms on the other. However, Dhawan paid for his excitement dearly as an effusive drive off the bowling of Lakmal in the seventh over of the innings cost him his wicket. The ball took an inside edge of Shikhar’s bat and knocked his stumps when he was batting on 8.
An Early tea was taken in the day as bad light once again stopped the game with India struggling at 17/2 after 8 overs. Play resumed with Kohli and Pujara looking to bail the hosts out of trouble.
However, India were dealt with their third blow of the day when a Lakmal delivery thudded into the pads of Kohli on the first ball of the eleventh over. Kohli went to DRS, but replays showed that the ball was clipping the leg-stump and Kohli had to return without opening his account. This is only the sixth time (second as captain) in his career that Kohli has been dismissed for a duck in Tests.
Just an over later, Pujara signaled to the umpires that he is not able to see the ball clearly and after a brief chat between the two umpires, the match was stopped again, but this time, for the final time in the day.
At stumps, India’s score read 17/3 in 11.3 overs. The star of the day clearly was Lakmal who ended with figures of 0/3 in 6 overs. Only once before, such a thing has ever happened, when Richie Benaud took three wickets for 0 runs but he did so in 3.4 overs against India in 1959 in Delhi.
