Mohali, March 4 : Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant took the game away from Sri Lanka by smashing a sterling 96 to help the host reach 357 for 6 at stumps on Day 1 of the first Test at the IS Bindra Stadium, here on Friday. Pant was largely modest by his own standards until the 76th over of the innings. He carted Lasith Embuldeniya for 22 in an over before Dananjaya de Silva was smashed for a six and a four in the next over. Taking the attack to a tired Sri Lankan bowling attack, he raced from 50 to 96 off just 24 balls and his 104 runs partnership with Ravindra Jadeja for the sixth wicket put India on course to a score around 400. During his swashbuckling innings of 96 runs off 97 balls, Pant smashed 9 boundaries and 4 sixes. He walked in at a time when Virat Kohli (45) and Hanuma Vihari (58) had fallen in quick succession after stitching a 90-run partnership for the third wicket, and Sri Lanka appeared to bounce back into the game. The game was in the balance at tea when Shreyas Iyer (27) departed with the score reading 228 for five, but Pant exploded, taking the game away from the visitors. Pant walked back with sheer disappointment after missing out on his fifth Test ton as Lankan pacer Suranga Lakamal struck with the second new ball. India are in a pretty good position on a pitch which is likely to turn with lots of cracks around the batting area. Getting 350 plus runs on the first day of the match is an extraordinary achievement, and India did this for the 14th time. Six of those have come against Sri Lanka alone. When the stumps were drawn, Jadeja was batting on 45 and classy Ravichandran Ashwin on 10. India had three partnerships over fifty apart from a century partnership. There is still some batting left for India which should see the hosts getting past 450 runs, if Lanka fails to wrap up the tail swiftly, they will be in a deep hole. As it stands, they could make inroads early on though conditions suited for pacers. Both Lakmal and Vishwa Fernando were all over the place, allowing the openers to free their arms to give a galloping start. Captain Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal made runs briskly and soon brought up a half-century stand. Both tried to accelerate when Lahiru Kumara hurled Rohit (29) with a flurry of short-pitched deliveries, enticing him to go for pull shot. He successfully sent the short-pitched stuff twice over the ropes, but had a last laugh when Rohit pulled it straight into the hands of Lakmal at long leg. Soon Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne employed left-arm spinner Embuldeniya, a tactic that paid off as he trapped Mayank (33) in front with one sliding on. Embuldeniya would have had Kohli for a duck in his 100th Test had a leading edge landed in one of the fielders in the deep. Vihari and Kohli saw the morning session through. In the post-lunch session, Vihari put Sri Lanka under the pump on his way to his first Test fifty in India. Kohli too settled in and unleashed his favourite shots in a brilliant 90-run stand. Sri Lanka struggled to keep Kohli and Vihari in check, while bowling no-balls at least on eight occasions. However, Embuldeniya finally breached Kohli’s defence to hit the top of the off stump. The former captain fell short of his 50 by 5 runs, even though he raced past the milestone of 8000 Test runs, becoming the sixth Indian to do so, after the likes of S l Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag. Kohli’s wicket emboldened Sri Lanka and it soared again when Vihari’s stumps were disturbed off the inside edge off Fernando, but Pant had different plans and restricted Sri Lanka’s claw-back. BDN GK