GALLE: On a flat Galle track where India scored 600 in their first innings Sri Lanka batsmen were left floundering for survival as they closed the second day of the first cricket Test at 154 for five wickets yesterday.
Sri Lanka face an uphill task of saving the follow-on needing to reach a total of 401, which at this stage seems quite a distance away as effectively they are six down with Asela Gunaratne ruled out of the match with an injury. Sri Lanka trail India by 446 runs and need a further 247 runs to avoid the follow-on.
On former captain Angelo Mathews rests the task of batting Sri Lanka out of the predicament they find themselves under. He was unbeaten on 54 at stumps with Dilruwan Perera on six. How far Mathews can take Sri Lanka depends on the support he can get from the tail.
It was not so much the pitch but the ability of the Indian bowlers to extract something out of it that made the difference between the two sides.
After Umesh Yadav had initiated the breakthrough in the second over of the innings by trapping Dimuth Karunaratne in front of the wicket, Mohammad Shami pushed Sri Lanka onto the back foot by sending back debutant Danushka Gunathilaka for 16 and Kusal Mendis for a duck (his first on home soil) in the 15th over.
Upul Tharanga and Angelo Mathews figured in a rescue act adding 57 for the fourth wicket and just as when Sri Lanka seemed to be gradually gaining in confidence, they lost Tharanga through an unfortunate run out.
Tharanga came out to Ashwin and played the ball to Mukund at silly point who reacted sharply and flicked the ball back to wicket-keeper Saha who whipped the bails off as Tharanga struggled to gain his ground. India appealed and the decision was put to the third umpire who ruled Tharanga out as his bat was in the air at the time the wicket-keeper broke the stumps. Had this match been played after October 1, Tharanga would have been ruled not out as there is a change in the rule that comes into effect from this date.
Losing Tharanga at that stage was a big blow as he was well set for a big innings. Sri Lanka also lost Niroshan Dickwella for eight when Mukund came up with another brilliant effort pulling off a one-handed reflex catch at silly point to give Ashwin his first wicket of the innings.
Sri Lanka for long has always looked to the left-arm spin of Rangana Herath to run through a batting side with other bowlers simply chipping in. Yesterday Nuwan Pradeep decided to put his hand up and came up with a fine spell of fast bowling on an unresponsive track to finish with career best figures of 6 for 132.
For a long time Pradeep has shown promise of doing something different and he seized his chance yesterday to break away from the hoodoo of finishing with four-fors in an innings on seven previous occasions.
Sri Lanka attacked the Indian batsmen with short balls and it paid off as both Pradeep and his new ball partner Lahiru Kumara ended with the most number of wickets – 9.
Herath was kept without a wicket for 31 overs before he finally had Saha caught by Perera at mid on.
India who resumed at 399-4 slipped to 503-7 by lunch but ninth wicket pair Hardik Pandya and Mohammad Shami added 62 off 51 balls to ensure India reached 600. Pandya on his debut scored a half-century off 49 balls and Shami made 30. Between them they shared six sixes.
Cheteswar Pujara made his sixth score of over 150 before being dismissed for 153 scored off 264 balls with the aid of 13 fours.
Sri Lanka captured the wickets of both overnight batsmen inside the first hour’s play but were stalled by India late order and tail that rustled up 97 runs in 16.1 overs with Pandya leading the lower order onslaught.
0 comments:
Post a Comment