Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant became the first Indian batter to complete 100 sixes in Test cricket and the overall fourth batter to do so.
Pant achieved this record during his side’s first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle, scoring 66 in 69 balls, with eight fours and two sixes at a strike rate of over 95.
Now, Rishabh has exactly 100 sixes in Test cricket, with New Zealand icon Brendon McCullum (107 sixes) and England legend Ben Stokes (138) above him and Adam Gilchrist (100 sixes) tied with him.
Reaching the milestone in just 4,918 balls, he has also taken the least number of balls to reach the milestone, beating Gilchrist (6,578). His balls per six of 49.2 is the best among the batters with a century of sixes.
Pant’s search for a century continued, as he got out for 66. This year in two Tests, he has scored 186 runs in three innings, with a best score of 81 and a strike rate of 73.80. Pant has not scored a Test century since his twin tons against England at Leeds last year.
India have lost six of their wickets, with their lead in excess of 350 runs.
Despite India having built a heavy cushion of runs, Sri Lanka continued to fight back with regular wickets during the first session on day four of the Galle Test on Tuesday.
India at the end of session one was 116/4, with Rishabh Pant (21) and Dhruv Jurel (5) unbeaten. India leads by 294 runs.
Despite Sonal Dinusha’s maiden Test hundred on Day 3 of the first Test match, Sri Lanka could only make 284 in the first innings in response to India’s 462, and the Shubman Gill-led side took a big lead of 178 runs in Galle.
Dinusha and the wicketkeeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella added 146 runs for the sixth wicket and kept Indian bowlers at bay, but the seamer Prasidh Krishna dismissed Dickwella for 80 runs in the 62nd over. Sonal stuck around to get a ton, but Suthar (4/76) and Jadeja (3/57) denied Sri Lanka a chance to score bigger.
