Lunch India 101 for 1 (Rahul 52*, Perera 1-11) v Sri Lanka
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A fifty upon a return after illness for KL Rahul – his sixth in as many innings – ensured India were on their way to milking the advantage of batting first on a dry pitch set to eventually bestow its bounty upon the spinners.
A measure of what the cricket might be like in the coming days was Sri Lanka’s preference to play only one specialist fast bowler, and three spinners. And though all of them showed wicket-taking potential – a marked improvement from the shambles in Galle – only Dilruwan Perera could dislodge a batsman but since it was Shikhar Dhawan, the hosts might be reasonably happy with their morning’s work. In the first Test, after 115 runs at 4.25 per over, the lunch break was a release from punishment. In this one, it was India happy to go off the field, having gritted through nine overs for 11 runs leading to the interval. And a terribly close stumping appeal against the set batsman.
That moment – brought about by a delightfully clever quicker ball from Herath – signalled the importance of first innings runs. Rahul was pinned to the crease by the flatter trajectory even though the length was fullish and it made his decision to flick against the turn rather risky. The ball zipped past his leading edge, but in another strong indication of the care the returning India opener showed, he did not let his back foot stray from the crease.
The next delivery was smashed almost all the way to the long-off boundary to bring Rahul level with GR Vishwanath and Rahul Dravid as the only Indians with six successive fifty-plus scores. Thanks to his solidity India had 101 runs on the board and nine wickets in hand to better their total.
More to follow
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo