Suresh Raina scores century on Test match debut

Suresh Raina became the ninth Indian cricketer to score a century in his first Test innings when his completed his hundred on the fourth day of the second Test match between India and Sri Lanka at the SSC in Colombo. 

Raina had come into bat at the number six position for India when the side was struggling at 241/4 in reply to the mammoth total of 642 that the Sri Lankan side had got. At that stage, a follow-on looked a virtual certainty, but along with the maestro Sachin Tendulkar, the pair took the side out of trouble.

When Raina got to his maiden century, the pair had added 201 runs and were only 200 runs short of the target.

Raina joins greats like W G Grace, Lala Amarnath, Javed Miandad, Gordon Greenidge, Gundappa Vishwanath, Greg Chappell and Sourav Ganguly in the list of batsmen who have scored centuries on Test debut. The century will also help Raina get over a forgettable series as captain of a young Indian side in the recent tri-series in Zimbabwe.

He also became the 59th batsman in the world to score a century in the first innings of the debut Test match.