SL vs IND: Pant's bravado, Suthar's spin leave India 6 wickets away from victory
Indian Test Team celebrate together (Source: X/@BCCI)
Published - 18 Aug 2026, 05:55 PM• Read time - 2 mins
India are six wickets away from securing a comfortable win in the first Test as Sri Lanka finished Day 4 on 84/4, chasing a 372-run target in the fourth innings. Manav Suthar (2/30) continued from where he left off in the first innings, adding two more wickets to his tally in the last session, while Mohammed Siraj (1/11) and Prasidh Krishna (1/13) also chipped in with one wicket each to put their team in a commanding position.
Earlier, Sri Lankan bowlers made a brilliant comeback, skittling India for 193 in their second innings to prevent them from crossing the 400-run lead. Asitha Fernando emerged as the pick of the bowlers with a four-wicket haul (4/31) for the hosts, while Prabath Jayasuriya (3/43) also chipped in with three wickets.
India came into Day 4, leading by 178 runs in the second innings, after bundling out Sri Lanka for 284 on Day 3. They didn’t get off to a great start to their second innings as Asitha Fernando got rid of Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first over itself for a three-ball duck.
After the early blow, the top two run scorers from the first innings, KL Rahul (35 off 47) and Devdutt Padikkal (44 off 75) added 65 runs for the second wicket off 85 balls to stabilise the innings. However, the duo failed to convert their starts, falling prey to Prabath Jayasuriya and Keshara Nuwantha respectively.
Captain Shubman Gill (8 off 20) also departed cheaply, getting trapped in front of the stumps by Jayasuriya. Dhruv Jurel (7 off 15) followed him shortly after as India lost half their side on 120 after 30.3 overs.
Rishabh Pant completes 100 sixes in Tests
As wickets continued to tumble, Rishabh Pant took the attack on the Sri Lankan bowlers to bring up his 20th Test fifty off 53 balls, with a towering six against Lahiru Kumara. It was his 100th six in Test cricket as he became the first Indian and the fourth batter to achieve the landmark.
Pant was also the quickest to achieve the feat in terms of balls, completing the milestone in just 6578 balls. He was eventually dismissed for 66 (69), while trying to go big against Lahiru Kumara. After a 54-run stand between Pant and Ravindra Jadeja (9 off 19), India lost their last five wickets for 19 runs to get bundled out for 193.