Pant reached 100 Test sixes faster than anyone has, and India set Sri Lanka 372
Rishabh Pant got to 100 sixes in Tests in his 89th innings, 41 fewer than Adam Gilchrist needed. India were bowled out for 193, and Sri Lanka lost Dinesh Chandimal to concussion before the chase began.
Aug 18, 2026
Rishabh Pant pulled Lahiru Kumara over fine leg on the fourth afternoon at Galle, and by the time the ball landed he had done something no batter in the history of Test cricket had done as quickly. It was his 100th six in the format, reached in his 89th innings. Adam Gilchrist, the previous quickest, needed 130.
The innings around it was worth as much to India as the record. Pant made 66 from 69 balls, and India, bowled out for 193 in 48.5 overs, set Sri Lanka 372 to win the first Test.
One hundred sixes, seventy-six of them against spin
Pant is only the fourth batter to reach 100 sixes in Tests, after Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum and Gilchrist, and the first India have produced. The breakdown is the interesting part. Seventy-six of the hundred have come against spin, which is why a Galle pitch turning square was never going to be the thing that slowed him down.
He got to fifty in 53 balls with six fours and two sixes, and was caught behind off Kumara for 66 with India six down and the lead already past 350. Nobody else stayed. Devdutt Padikkal, who made 167 in the first innings, managed 44 in the second. KL Rahul made 35, Yashasvi Jaiswal was caught behind off the third ball of the innings, and India lost their last four wickets for 19 runs.
Asitha Fernando’s four for 31
Asitha bowled 8.5 overs and took four wickets for 31, which is not a return anyone pencils in for a seamer on the fourth day at Galle. Jayasuriya took 3 for 43 and Kumara 2 for 28. Sri Lanka got through India’s second innings in under 50 overs, having spent 116.4 overs on the first, and the difference between those two numbers is most of the story of the match so far.
Chandimal’s dive, and a debut that lasted one ball
Sri Lanka lost a batter before the chase even started. In the fourth over of India’s second innings, Dinesh Chandimal sprinted from deep midwicket to deep square leg to cut off a KL Rahul shot, threw himself at it, and landed awkwardly with his neck and shoulder folded under him. He saved two runs. He was taken to hospital for scans, which Sri Lanka Cricket said were clear with no sign of internal injury, but he was diagnosed with concussion and ruled out of the match.
His replacement was Pasindu Sooriyabandara, a 26-year-old with 4,893 first-class runs at 54.36 who had never played a Test. He became only the fifth cricketer to win a maiden Test cap as a substitute, after Zimbabwe’s Brian Mudzinganyama, South Africa’s Khaya Zondo, England’s Matt Parkinson and Afghanistan’s Bahir Shah.
He walked out at number three with Sri Lanka 13 for 1 and was lbw to Manav Suthar for a duck, first ball. Careers have started worse, though not many, and not many have started at all in these circumstances.
372, and what it would take
No team has chased more than 342 to win a Test at Galle, which Pakistan did in 2022, and before that the ground’s record was 268. Sri Lanka need 372, and they were 47 for 4 when the fourth wicket went down in the 22nd over, with Suthar taking two and Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna one each. Dhananjaya de Silva and Sonal Dinusha, who made a hundred in the first innings, came together to repair it.
Rain has taken chunks out of all four days, which is the one thing working in Sri Lanka’s favour. India need six more wickets on the final day, and the weather has not yet given anyone at Galle a full one to work with.