Shikhar Dhawan fell to the most bizarre dismissal ever. Suranga Lakmal at a squarish fine leg took a catch without his shoes and that became the talk of the town on Day 1, apart from the two 150s by Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay. Earlier in the day, India won the toss at Feroz Shah Kotla in the 3rd Test and opted to bat first. This was a move of intent considering India had taken an unassailable 1-0 lead in the series. Shikhar Dhawan opened the batting with Murali Vijay. Vijay was coming fresh from a century at Nagpur. Dhawan, on the other hand, needed some runs under his belt before the South Africa series. India got off to a brisk start, with both the openers finding the middle of the bat regularly.
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So, here is what happened:
Dhawan was looking set on 23 when Sri Lanka opted for their first bowling change. Spin was introduced in the form of Dilruwan Perera. Dhawan was looking to employ the sweep when the total was on 42. Dhawan’s sweep was not well controlled and it took the top-edge only to find a shoeless Suranga Lakmal under the ball. He somehow held on to the catch but had lost his shoe while doing it.
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Here is the clip of the incident:
____ ___ Lakmal Shoes #INDvSL #INDvsSL #Ashes #NZvWI #TestCricket #RAMSlam #AUSvENG #ViruPanti #AakashVani #NerolacCricketLive good catch __ pic.twitter.com/7Hfb6lp0Wz
— SAHIL SABHARWAL (@sahil_sabharwa) December 2, 2017
At the end of Day 1, India sits pretty at 371 for 4, thanks to a maverick ton by Murali Vijay (155) and an unbeaten (156*) by Virat Kohli. Virat brought up his 20th Test century and this was also his 11th century in 2017 across formats. He also has 52 international centuries in total.
