Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara share a smile after taking four runs in one ball

On a very exhausting day’s play, India managed to hammer the Lankans thanks to some brilliant batting from Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara. At the back end of the day, Virat Kohli too joined the act and scored a brilliant half-century. The Indian skipper is looking well set for his 19th Test match hundred and Pujara will be looking to notch yet another double-ton in his amazing career statistics.

After resuming day 2 at 11/1, Indian batters had a tough time combating the Lankan bowlers initially. With the ball getting softer and the pitch turning a lot more flatter, Pujara and Vijay’s perseverance paid off and to add insult to injury, the bowlers were getting fatigued with all the efforts they were putting in.

Murali Vijay registered a brilliant hundred on his comeback, which incidentally makes him only the third Indian opener to score 10 or more centuries. After adding a whopping 209 runs for the second wicket, Vijay was dismissed and in came Virat Kohli. The skipper upped the ante with some stellar strokeplay and his brilliance took the run-rate to over 3 runs per over.

Four runs taken off one ball

One of the best moment on day 2 was Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara taking four runs off one ball courtesy an overthrow. Kohli pushed the ball with soft hands towards short covers and cruised through for a single. A wayward throw from the fielder went past the keeper towards the vacant mid-wicket region.

Kohli called for a two and realising that it was Rangana Herath after the ball, he called for another run. An exhausted Pujara completed the third run off the overthrow with great difficulty and both players shared a smile. Pujara had batted the whole day prior to that but when a person is batting with Virat Kohli, there can never be an excuse to not run.

That was exactly what happened there and being one of the fittest players in the team, Pujara was able to complete four runs off that ball and managed to survive yet another day in this series.