Pink ball Test, Day 2: India pile Lanka's misery

Bengaluru: India declared their second innings at 303 for 9 during the final session of the second day to set Sri Lanka a mammoth target of 447 runs to win the second Test (pink ball game) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Sunday.

India made the declaration when Axar Patel was out for 9 after India had played 68.5 overs in their second innings. Mohammed Shami remained not out on 16. Shreyas Iyer top-scored with a 87-ball 67 while star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant struck a counter-attacking 31-ball 50. Captain Rohit Sharma contributed 46.

Resuming their second innings from 61-1, India added 138 more runs in 29 overs at a rate of 4.76 and lost the wickets of Rohit Sharma (46), Hanuma Vihari (35), Virat Kohli (13), Rishabh Pant (50) in the second session of Day 2.

Rohit and Vihari, who were holding the fort for India at tea, continued to bat in the same vein. Sharma looked set to get to his first fifty as captain but it wasn't to be as he fell on 46 after being caught by Angelo Mathews in the deep on the bowling of Dhananjaya.

Soon after, Vihari was cleaned up by Jayawickrama.

Rishabh Pant came in and unleashed fireworks straight away but watched Kohli depart from the other end. However, Pant took the pitch out of the equation with an attacking approach and demoralised the Sri Lankan bowlers. He went on to smash the fastest Test 50 by an Indian off 28 balls and break the legendary Kapil Dev's 40-year-old record of 30-ball 50 in the 1982 Test , before being removed by Jayawickrama. Ravindra Jadeja (10) and Shreyas Iyer (18) then remained unbeaten to take India to 199/5 at the dinner break.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka could add only 23 runs more to their overnight score as Jasprit Bumrah took a historic five-for (5/24) to help India bowl out the visitors for 109 in their first innings. It was Sri Lanka's second-lowest total (109) in Tests against India, with the previous being 82 all out in Chandigarh in 1990.

Brief scores: India 1st innings: 252 in 59.1 overs. Sri Lanka 1st innings: 109 all out in 35.5 overs (Angelo Mathews 43; Jasprit Bumrah 5/24). India 2nd innings: 303 for 9 declared in 68.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 67, Rishabh Pant 50, Rohit Sharma 46; Praveen Jayawickrama 4/78).