Tea: India 282 for 2 (Pujara 75*, Kohli 1*, Pradeep 2-42) v Sri Lanka
04:34
Runorder: Sri Lanka’s three-and-a-half team problem
Shikhar Dhawan scored a century in a session for the second time in his career, rekindling memories of his blazing 187 on debut while laying waste to a toothless Sri Lanka attack. Having surpassed that score, he fell three minutes from tea, spooning Nuwan Pradeep to mid-off 10 short of a maiden double-hundred.
Between lunch and his dismissal, Dhawan scored 126 off 90 balls, breaking Polly Umrigar’s India record of 110 in the post-lunch session, made during his innings of 172* in Port-of-Spain in April 1962. Virender Sehwag, who scored 133 in the post-tea session against Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium in 2009, is the only Indian batsman to score more runs in a session.
Dhawan added 253 for the second wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara, who went to tea batting on a chanceless 75, off 135 balls. On a grassier-than-normal Galle pitch, India scored 115 for 1 before lunch, at 4.26 an over, and 167 for 1 in the post-lunch session, at 5.96.
Having missed India’s last 11 Tests, Dhawan was only in the side because M Vijay was injured and KL Rahul ill. He grabbed his chance in the most decisive manner, in perfect batting conditions against one of the weaker attacks Sri Lanka have fielded at home.
Every moment of Dhawan’s stay spelled torment for Sri Lanka’s bowlers and fielders. He only hit eight fours in the first session, while still cruising at a strike rate in the 70s thanks to a proactive pursuit of quick singles, but exploded thereafter, hitting 23 fours, all around the dial, in the second session. Rangana Herath set defensive fields throughout this onslaught, but Dhawan kept breaching the boundary no matter how many fielders he sent out to protect it.
Lahiru Kumara, who endured the kind of nightmare day that occasionally afflicts young, erratic quicks early in their careers, had a fielder stationed at deep point and Dhawan beat him twice in one over, slapping the ball once to his right and once to his left.
Dilruwan Perera tried bowling over the wicket with a short fine leg and a deep backward square leg in place. Twice in one over, Dhawan swept him between those two fielders. Then, having shown off the flat, square-ish sweep, he went across to a nicely flighted, good-length ball from Herath and lap-swept him fine, before jumping out to his next ball and drilling him fiercely down the ground.
The forays down the pitch were frequent, and hugely productive. On India’s last tour of this country, their batsmen had made a conscious decision to step out to the spinners after their initial crease-bound approach had contributed to a first-Test defeat. The emphasis on using their feet had coincided with Herath becoming less of a force in the second and third Tests, which India won.
Dhawan and Pujara stepped out at every opportunity in the first two sessions of this tour. Between them, they would do so 59 times before tea. Dhawan’s surges out of his crease fetched him 36 runs off 29 balls, including seven fours.
The willingness to leave the crease also created other opportunities for scoring, such as a marginally short ball from Perera, half an hour before lunch, to which Pujara went right back in his crease to manufacture a pulled boundary through square leg.
Sri Lanka’s only success before Dhawan’s dismissal came in the eighth over of the morning, via an excellent delivery from Pradeep, angled in from around the wicket and straightening off the seam to induce an edge from Abhinav Mukund, whose front foot had hardly come out of the crease and had just landed on its heel when he jabbed uncertainly in defence.
Six overs later, Sri Lanka let Dhawan off when he was on 31. Pitching one up in the corridor, Kumara induced Dhawan’s only loose drive of the morning. Diving to his left from second slip, Asela Gunaratne got both hands to the ball but failed to hold on. Then he went off the field, holding on gingerly to an already heavily strapped left hand. It later emerged that the ball had fractured Gunaratne’s left thumb, and that he was unlikely to play any further part in the match.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo