And we thought we were in for another dull India vs Sri Lanka encounter.
The first Test at Eden Gardens between the familiar foes turned out to be a nail-biter despite rain delays and bad light, with Sri Lanka hanging on by a thread in the final session of the match to eke out a draw.
On a seaming track in Kolkata, Sri Lanka made the most of winning the toss to put India on the back-foot but the hosts showed why they are the best Test team in the world right now by roaring back on the final day to almost record a famous win.
During the course of the match, a whole host of records were created. Here’s a look at the statistical highlights.
Indian pacers dominate like never before
With all the talk of the return of the spin twins to the Test squad, the pitch at the Eden Gardens threw a statistical curve-ball. The duo ended up wicket-less in the match – the first time ever that Indian spinners had zero in the wickets column in a Test match played at home.
Pujara’s five-day feat
Cheteshwar Pujara achieved a rare feat, becoming only the third Indian and ninth overall to bat on all five days of a Test match.
When Pujara came out to bat on the final day of the opening Test against Sri Lanka, he joined ML Jaisimha and Ravi Shastri in the elite list. Incidentally they had also achieved the rare feat at the Eden Gardens.
Pujara’s aggregate of 74 runs (52 and 22) is the lowest among the nine players to bat on all five days. Jaisimha was the first batsman to achieve the milestone, which had come against Australia in 1960, scoring 20 not out and 74. Shastri entered the club in 1984 against England scoring 111 and 7 not out.
The other cricketers in the list include Geoffrey Boycott (England), Kim Hughes (Australia), Allan Lamb (England), Adrian Griffith (West Indies), Andrew Flintoff (England) and Alviro Peterson (South Africa).
Kohli crosses a whole lot of milestones
And finally, of course, the run-machine himself, who seems to be breaking some record or the other whenever he comes to bat these days.
Virat Kohli’s legendary status in world cricket grew further when the Indian captain smashed his 50th international century on day five. Kohli got to his 18th Test hundred with a flat and powerful six over extra cover off Suranga Lakmal and let out a big roar.
In the list of most number of centuries, Kohli sits at No 8 behind Brian Lara (53), Mahela Jayawardene (54), Hashim Amla (54), Jaques Kallis (62), Kumar Sangakkara (63) Ricky Ponting (71) and iconic Sachin Tendulkar, who is the only cricketer to get 100 international hundreds.
With 18 Test hundreds to his name, Kohli has now gone ahead of Dilip Vengsarkar (17) but is still behind Mohammed Azharuddin (22), Virender Sehwag (23), Sunil Gavaskar (34), Rahul Dravid (36) and Tendulkar (51).
The Indian skipper also joined South African great Hashim Amla as the fastest to 50 centuries in international cricket, getting there in 348 innings. The second in the list is Sachin Tendulkar (376 innings), who is followed by Ricky Ponting (420) and Brian Lara (465).
This was also his first Test hundred at the Eden Gardens.
He has 21 international centuries as captain in 98 innings, behind South African Graeme Smith’s 41 (368 innings) and Aussie great Ricky Ponting’s feat of 41 (376 innings).
And with his century, Kohli once again took his Test average past 50 – making him the only active player to have a 50-plus average in all three formats of the game once again.
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