Flamboyant India batter Shreyas Iyer scripted history on Sunday with another half-century in the second Test match against Sri Lanka at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. On a turning track, Iyer played a magnificent knock of 92 runs in the first innings where none of the Indian batters failed to get past 50, he followed it up with another fighting fifty in the second innings. He scored 67 runs off 87 balls before getting dismissed by Lasith Embuldeniya.
With twin half-centuries in the same match, Iyer becomes the first Indian batter to register a fifty-plus score in both innings of the day-night Test. While overall he became the fourth batter to do so after Darren Bravo, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne.
50-plus score in both innings of a day-night Test
87 & 116 – Darren Bravo v Pak Dubai 2016
130 & 63 – Steve Smith v Pak Brisbane 2016
143 & 50 – Marnus Labuschagne v NZ Perth 2019
103 & 51 – Marnus Labuschagne v Eng Adelaide 2021
92 & 67 – Shreyas Iyer v SL Bengaluru 2022
Iyer played a crucial role to put India in a comfortable position as the hosts currently enjoy an upper hand as Sri Lanka need 419 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand.
The 27-year-old missed out on a well-deserving century in the first innings. He expressed his disappointment on missing 2nd Test century but was extremely happy to contribute to the team’s total when things were getting difficult to score.
“I am disappointed that I missed out on a hundred, but if you see from the team’s perspective, we got to a very fighting total, which is 250, especially on this wicket. And seriously I don’t have any regrets. When I play on the field, I play for the team, I don’t play for myself. The results matter for me and my teammates, skipper, coaches, all of them have been really supportive throughout and that’s what really matters,” Iyer said in the post-match press conference.
“And I felt fifty was like a century because I celebrated it was like a century feeling for me,” he added.
During his innings, Shreyas used his footwork to perfection. He charged down the wicket quite often especially against the spinners to negate the turn.
“My plan when I went out to bat was to cut down the spin (negate turn), so I decided to step out. As I was standing on the middle stump, I was cutting down across the wicket so I could cover the spin and can take a single in the mid-wicket area and I am confident when I do that. When you step out, you play with the mind of the bowler and spoil his line and length,” the batter explained.
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