Opener Mayank Agarwal stamped his authority on a struggling South African attack with a second successive hundred as India cruised to 273/3 on the opening day of the second Test in Pune.

The 28-year-old’s rich vein of form continued as he looked in complete command for his 108 off 195 balls, having made a sublime 215 in the series opener in Visakhapatnam last week.

The first day of the second match panned out similar to the way the first Test went as India, leading 1-0 in the series, looked to bat the Proteas out of the game on a good surface.

Along with Cheteshwar Pujara (58), Agarwal added 138 runs for the second wicket with minimum fuss, despite India losing Rohit Sharma’s (14) wicket in the first hour itself.

In the final session, skipper Virat Kohli (63 batting off 105 balls) was in his element, hitting yet another Test half-century and adding 75 runs for the unbroken fourth-wicket partnership with Ajinkya Rahane (18 batting off 70 balls). Kohli hit some flowing drives during the final hour and had 10 fours to his credit.

Here are the statistical highlights after day one’s play in Pune:

  • Agarwal continued his superb record of run-scoring in the first innings of a Test match in his short international career so far.

  • This was also the only fourth instance of Indian openers scoring four tons in a Test series.

  • Agarwal also made it back-to-back centuries at the MCA Stadium in Pune (in first-class cricket).

  • During the course of the unbeaten knock on day one, Kohli went climbed up a couple of spots on the list of leading run-scorers in Test cricket. He is now only five runs behind Dilip Vengsarkar at the eighth spot among Indians.

Leading run-scorers (IND) in Tests

Player Matches (Inns) Runs Ave 100s 50s
SR Tendulkar 200 (329) 15921 53.78 51 68
R Dravid 163 (284) 13265 52.63 36 63
SM Gavaskar 125 (214) 10122 51.12 34 45
VVS Laxman 134 (225) 8781 45.97 17 56
V Sehwag 103 (178) 8503 49.43 23 31
SC Ganguly 113 (188) 7212 42.17 16 35
DB Vengsarkar 116 (185) 6868 42.13 17 35
V Kohli 81 (138) 6863 53.61 25 23
As of end of day one in Pune (Courtesy: ESPNCricinfo Statsguru)

  • Earlier in the day, Kohli became only the second Indian, after Mahendra Singh Dhoni, to lead the side in 50 Tests. He went past Sourav Ganguly, who had captained the side in 49 Tests, and now trails only MS Dhoni, who led India 60 times in Tests between 2008-2014. More on Kohli’s record here.

(With PTI inputs)