Innings India 600 (Dhawan 190, Pujara 153, Rahane 57, Pandya 50, Pradeep 6-132) v Sri Lanka
02:27
Maharoof: SL built pressure from both ends
India’s last two wickets added 83 in 71 balls in a burst of six-hitting, with Hardik Pandya completing a half-century on Test debut, as they posted 600 in the first innings of the Galle Test. Pandya was last out, holing out off Lahiru Kumara for 50 off 49 balls, just under an hour after lunch on day two.
Sri Lanka may have hoped for a quick end to India’s innings when Nuwan Pradeep, cleaning up Ravindra Jadeja with the bouncer-yorker double, left them 517 for 8 in the fifth over after lunch. But that wasn’t to be, as the quicks leaked runs in an effort to pepper the lower order with the short ball, and Rangana Herath kept get hitting back over his head, notably by Mohammed Shami who hit him for three sixes. Pandya hit three sixes too, all three off Pradeep, two hooked over backward square leg and one whipped over midwicket.
The dismissal of Shami, caught on the square-leg boundary off Kumara, ended a ninth-wicket stand of 62, but Sri Lanka’s ordeal wasn’t yet over. Umesh Yadav, India’s No. 11, also joined in the hitting spree, hitting Kumara for a big six down the ground and Herath for the lofted four that brought up India’s 600.
Lunch: India 503 for 7 (Jadeja 8*, Pandya 4* Pradeep 5-88) v Sri Lanka
Nuwan Pradeep’s maiden Test five-for led an improved bowling display from Sri Lanka but India still retained control of the Galle Test as their lower order steered their total past 500. India lost their two overnight batsmen, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, by the 11th over of the morning before R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha counter-punched with a sixth-wicket stand of 59. Just when it seemed India would run away with another session, Sri Lanka dismissed both in the space of six balls to make their lunch a little more palatable.
There had been signs late on day one that the pitch was beginning to help the spinners, and Rangana Herath’s first ball of day two – he bowled the third over of the morning – added to that impression, ripping across the face of Pujara’s defensive bat. Then, after Pujara had gone past 150, Pradeep removed him with a beauty that hit the seam in the channel outside off stump. It nipped away off the pitch, with a hint of extra bounce, and caught the high part of the outside edge.
A sense of renewed purpose and discipline had animated Sri Lanka’s bowling all morning, and three-and-a-half overs later, Lahiru Kumara became the first non-Pradeep bowler to get on the wickets column. Predominantly short right through day one, he found reward for a fuller length, inviting Rahane to drive away from the body. Dimuth Karunaratne, diving to his right at wide slip, clung on to the edge with both hands.
Despite the selection of Hardik Pandya, India stuck with Ashwin and Saha at Nos. 6 and 7, trusting their experience and proven firefighting abilities ahead of the debutant’s promise. Ashwin and Saha had put on three fifty partnerships and one double-century stand and averaged 47.50 as a pair since the start of 2016, and they combined once again to stall Sri Lanka’s momentum.
Not for the first time in his career, Ashwin began finding the gaps almost as soon as he walked in, and took three fours from successive Herath overs, twice driving him through the off side and once stepping out to clip him between midwicket and mid-on. In all, he would hit seven fours in a 60-ball 47.
Saha, having just survived a lifter from Kumara that he edged over the leaping slip fielder, was beginning to join in the boundary spree when a dash down the wicket to Herath found him too close to the pitch of the ball to achieve any real elevation. Looking to clear mid-on, he only managed to scoop the ball straight at him. An over later, Ashwin departed, edging an attempted hook off Pradeep to the keeper.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo