Sri Lanka vs India: Stats - Dhawan's love affair with centuries

India resumed their innings from 128-2 after dismissing Sri Lanka for 183 runs in the first innings. Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan started from where they had left the previous day and went on to score centuries. They added 227 runs for the 3rd wicket and helped India post 375 on the board. Sri Lanka in reply were stuttering at 5-2 at the end of the day’s play with 187 runs behind. Here are some interesting numbers from the day’s play:

#1 First match - first hundred

Loves scoring hundreds

134 – runs scored by Dhawan in his innings - his personal best no. 3 after his 187 vs Australia at Mohali in his debut match and 173 vs Bangladesh at Fatullah in March this year.

271 – balls faced by Shikhar Dhawan in today’s match - most balls he has faced in a single innings prior to this match was 211 for his 115 vs New Zealand at Auckland. Even his 187 vs Australia came off 174 balls with a strike rate well over 100.

4 – teams against which Dhawan has hit a century in the first match against them. Shikhar Dhawan hit a century against Australia in 2013, against New Zealand in 2014, against Bangladesh in 2015 and against Sri Lanka today: all were his first matches against the respective teams. Apart from this, he has now hit tons playing his first match in each of the listed countries - India, New Zealand, then Bangladesh and now Sri Lanka. Interestingly, he has a total of 4 centuries in Tests.

#2 Kohli\'s record away from India

Kohli scored his 11^th Test hundred

2 – number of times prior to this match Virat Kohli was dismissed for 103 in his career; today it was his 3rd such score- most for any player in the Test history. Overall there have been 85 instances when a batsman was dismissed on 103 in a Test innings.

7 – out his Kohli’s 10 Test centuries prior to this match had come on foreign soil- it was his 8th century away from home.

94.33 – Kohli’s average as captain in 6 innings so far. He has scored 566 runs with 4 centuries while leading his side. He has now scored 4 hundreds in his first four matches as skipper joining Sunil Gavaskar and Alastair Cook.

8 out of his 11 hundreds produced a score less than 120. His 100 plus scores are 169, 147, 141, 119, 116, 115, 107, 105, 103, 103 and again 103.

#3 Dhawan and Kohli put on a 200-run stand

Kohli and Dhawan put on 227 for the 3rd wicket

227 – runs collected by Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli for the 3rd wicket, which is the highest 3rd wicket partnership in Tests involving India and Sri Lanka.

0 – number of times, 227 runs were gathered for the third wicket in the first 115 years of Test history (till 1992). Since then, it has happened on 4 occasions including the one in this match. The other three instances are Alec Stewart and Robin Smith vs Pakistan in 1992, Ab de Villiers and Jacques Kallis vs England in 2005 and Mahela Jayawardene and Michael Vandort vs England in 2007. Overall, there are 7 partnerships of 227 runs in Tests, all of which are either for the 2nd or 3rd wicket.

14th 200 plus partnership stand for any wicket in an Ind-SL Test match now. It was also 16th 200 plus partnership for the 3rd wicket for India in Tests, and 9th highest in that list.

#4 Sri Lanka\'s openers fumble again

Silva was bowled for a duck

0 – runs scored by the openers for Sri Lanka - their lowest in 2015 beating 12 against Pakistan, while technically it is the joint lowest in Test history (lighter note). Both openers got out for ducks.

10 – out of last 10 innings, Sri Lanka’s opening partnership was broken before 50. Their highest has been 49 against Pakistan at Colombo in June 2015.

3 – opening pairs before this game to have been dismissed for ducks in the same innings of the Test - Karunaratne and Silva became the 4th pair in Test cricket to get an unwanted record to their names. The other three opening partners to have this discredit to their names are Trescothick and Strauss vs Pakistan, Graham Gooch and Robinson vs West Indies, and Motganhalli Jaisimha with Indrajitsinhji against Australia. However, Karunaratne and Silva fell against spinners making them the first pair to be dismissed on ducks by slow bowlers.