Kohli ‘ton’ halt Lankan initiative

An enterprising knock of 144 in 185 minutes with 20 boundaries and a six by Virat Kohli saved the Indian Under 19 side after a top order collapse to end the innings on 301 on day one of the First Youth Test against their Sri Lanka counterparts played at the Colts grounds.

Indian skipper Tanmay Srivastava winning the toss and electing to bat were given a positive start but a top order collapse negated the 30 run opening stand by openers Rohan Banerjee and Abhinav Mukund. The dismissal of Banerjee, Mukund and skipper Srivastava within a space of 12 runs started a collapse and the road to recovery was dim with them struggling on 86 for 5 at lunch.

It was right arm paceman Ishan Jayaratne and left arm leg-spinner Navin Kavikara who did the early damage. The duo shared two wickets each in this session.

The post lunch session saw the Indians bouncing back with centurion Kohli spearheading their recovery with three valuable partnerships. The first was for the sixth wicket with Shreevats Gosawami which yielded 62 runs, though Goswami’s contribution was only 15 runs, it was worthwhile. This was followed with another useful 31 runs stand for the seventh wicket with Dhawal Kulkarni.

Then came the best of the three partnerships as Kohli found another reliable partner in Pradeep Sangwan and the duo took the Indians out of the woods with a magnificent batting display. It was an exhibition of top batting under pressure, as they had things their own way with the Lankan bowling in disarray. The solid stand of the two saw them accumulate 111 runs in just 119 balls before Kohli’s innings came to an end.

But by that time the Indians had taken the initiative. Sangwan too contributed a fine knock of 57 which had four hits to the ropes. Left arm spinner Prabhu Appanna added salt to the wound when he captured two Sri Lankan wickets as the home side ended the day on 5 for 2. After letting loose the stranglehold they held, now the Sri Lankans are left with the daunting task of making a match of it when the game resumes today at 10.00 a.m.

India Under 19 --301 (Virat Kohli 144, Pradeep Sangwan 57, Abhinav Mukund 17, Saurabh Tiwaryi 16, Shreevats Goswami 15.; Ishan Jayaratne 3 for 60, Navin Kavikara 3 for 72, Charith Jayampathi 2 for 32)
Sri Lanka Under 19 5 for 2 (Prabhu Appanna 2 for 0)