Devdutt Padikkal conjured an extraordinary 117, powering India above Rishabh Pant’s hand injury and untimely fall of wickets around him to a reasonable 300 for five on the opening day of second and final Test against spirited Sri Lanka in Colombo on Sunday. Dhruv Jurel (7) and debutant Saransh Jain (4) were batting at close after a taxing day of Test cricket. Padikkal’s 168-ball innings, his second hundred in as many Tests, was not laced with the customary elegance barring on a couple of occasions when he brought out those full-blooded pulls and drives. He was dropped on 0 and 1 but remained solid after those reprieves.
This century was vastly different from the one he scored at Galle, where the pitch was not remotely challenging in the first two days. Just as he warmed-up for a more substantial score, Asitha Fernando produced a peach of a nip-backer to breach his defence and the dismissal followed a little piece of drama. But the situation was defused by home captain De Silva.
