Rishabh Pant spearheaded India's second innings with an aggressive 66 off 69 balls, powering India to a total of 193 and setting Sri Lanka a daunting target of 372 runs to win the first Test in Galle on Tuesday.

During his counter-attacking knock, the wicketkeeper-batter smashed 8 fours and 2 sixes, scripting history by becoming the first Indian and the fastest player globally to hit 100 Test sixes. He reached the elite milestone in just 89 innings and from only 4,918 deliveries, shattering the previous records held by Australian legend Adam Gilchrist (137 innings and 6,578 balls).

Pant entered the second innings with 98 career Test sixes. He brought up his half-century and his 100th Test maximum simultaneously by shuffling across his crease and flat-whipping a length delivery from seamer Lahiru Kumara over the fine-leg boundary.

As a result, the southpaw joined an exclusive club of only four players in Test history to clear the fence 100 times. Before him, Ben Stokes (138), Brendon McCullum (107), and Adam Gilchrist (100) had achieved this feat.

Backed by useful contributions from Devdutt Padikkal (44) and KL Rahul (35), Pant's rapid scoring pushed India's overall lead to 371 runs. This leaves Sri Lanka chasing a target higher than the venue's highest-ever successful fourth-innings chase (344 by Pakistan in 2022).

For his scintillating knock, Rishabh Pant garnered rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X.

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