India v Sri Lanka, 2017: 2nd Test, Day 2 – Statistical Highlights

Yet another marathon innings from Cheteshwar Pujara along with Murali Vijay resulted in a strong Indian batting show as they lost just one wicket during the 2nd day and scored over 300 runs. Vijay scored 128 on his return while Pujara struck his 4th Test hundred in 2017 and is set to bat for the eighth consecutive day of this series. Virat Kohli too scored an unbeaten fifty coming in after the dismissal of Vijay.

Here are the stats and numbers recorded in the first two days of this 2nd Test match:

1 – Cheteshwar Pujara became the first Indian to score 1000 Test runs in 2017. He only the 2nd Indian after Kohli (2016) to aggregate 1000 Test runs in a year since 2012. Dean Elgar and Dimuth Karunaratne are the others batters with 1000 Test runs in 2017.

2 – Karunaratne is only the 2nd Sri Lankan opener to aggregate 1000 Test runs in a calendar year. Sanath Jayasuriya scored over 1000 Test runs in 1997 and 2004 as an opener.

3 – Having scored 1000 runs in Test cricket while batting at No.3 in 2017, Pujara became only the 3rd Indian after Dilip Vengsarkar (1979) and Rahul Dravid (2002) to aggregate 1000 Test runs at No.3 position in a year.

3 – Number of double century partnerships between Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara in Test cricket. Since 2013, these are the most number of double ton stands for a pair. Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane also shared three 200-run stands in this period.

4 – The Vijay-Pujara pair now has century contributions in each of their last four partnerships in Test cricket. Before the 209-run stand in this game, they put on 102, 178 and 107 in their previous three innings as a pair in Tests. They are only the 5th pair in Test history with four consecutive century stands and the second Indian pair after Sanjay Manjrekar and Mohammad Azharuddin in 1989-1990.

4 – Number of Test centuries for Cheteshwar Pujara in 2017. These are the joint 2nd most for any player. Dean Elgar has five hundreds while Steven Smith scored his 4th earlier in the Ashes Test.

10 – Number of centuries for Murali Vijay in Test cricket. These are the 3rd most number of tons by an Indian opener in this format. Only Sunil Gavaskar (33) and Virender Sehwag (22) scored more hundreds while opening.

19 – Virat Kohli now has 19 fifty-plus scores in 2017 across formats. These are the joint most number of fifty-plus scores for an Indian captain in a calendar year. Rahul Dravid also had 19 fifty-plus scores as a captain in 2006.