The touring Sri Lankan side had a magnificent start to the rain-affected Test match as they removed the Indian top-order within the first seven overs. Winning the toss, Dinesh Chandimal decided to bowl first to exploit the overcast condition at the Eden Gardens, and his bowlers were up to the mark as they reduced the star-studded Indian batting line-up to 3 wickets from 17 runs. Suranga Lakmal was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up all the three wickets in the afternoon as he was unplayable.
The tall and lanky right-arm fast bowler picked up the wicket of KL Rahul from the first ball of the match, who was coming from seven consecutive half-centuries. He then bowled Shikhar Dhawan in the seventh over of the match, who went to play a flashy cover drive leaving a huge gap between bat and pad. Indian skipper Virat Kohli went into the record books as he got out on 0 for the fifth time in this year. He was caught in front of middle and from an inswinger which hit his knee roll leaving India struggling at 17 for 3.
The 30-year-old Lakmal entered into the record books for his outstanding effort of bowling seven consecutive maiden overs, before giving away any runs in a Test match since 2001. Laklam finished the first day of the Test match with three wickets from 6 overs without conceding a run. He added one more maiden over to his tally of six before conceding a four in his eighth over of Rahane. Earlier, West Indian Jerome Taylor had the record of bowling 40 dot balls before conceding a run against the Aussies in Jamaica in 2015.
Sri Lanka will play three Test matches, three ODI’s and three T20I’s in this tour and will like to turn things into their favor after a humiliating 9-0 loss across all formats earlier this year.