Sri Lanka rolled over for 205 after winning toss

Tea Sri Lanka 151 for 4 (Chandimal 47*, Dickwella 18*) v India
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

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India continued to use the Sri Lanka home series as tour games for the Tests in South Africa, and still managed to maintain ascendancy over the opponents they have had the wood on in recent times. The Nagpur pitch had much more for spinners than Kolkata did, but there were obvious attempts to prepare India for South Africa with a covering of grass on the surface.

Even though there were brief periods when batsmen looked comfortable, India maintained enough discipline and produced enough wicket-taking deliveries to keep Sri Lanka under pressure with their score at 151 for 4 at tea on day one. Two of those fell to Ishant Sharma, coming into the XI in place of Mohammed Shami, who picked up a hip niggle.

Sri Lanka could – and should – find India’s approach condescending as Virat Kohli said at the toss that they were looking to go out of their way to put themselves in difficult situations before they went to South Africa. Accordingly, they gave up on their policy of five bowlers to give Rohit Sharma some game time before South Africa to go with the change in the conditions. Sri Lanka again won the toss, and as it turned got the best of the batting conditions with the intrinsic spin-friendly nature of the Nagpur track coming to fore in the second half of the day.

The biggest gain keeping South Africa in mind, though, might have come in the field. Since he dropped Alastair Cook in Kolkata in 2012-13 – Cook went on to score 190 from 17 when he was let off – Cheteshwar Pujara has only rarely stood at slip for India. That alone will not be the reason for his banishment from the slips, but Pujara has continued to field at slip for Saurashtra. Now fielding at first slip in Shikhar Dhawan’s absence, Pujara pulled off an excellent low catch to his left, almost diving forward, to send back opener Sadeera Samarawickrama to make it 20 for 1 in the fifth over.

This was a significant catch for two reasons. India usually have about a 50% success rate at slips for quick bowlers, and given this was a tough catch, it was an odds-on favourite to go down. And slip catches for quicks will be crucial in a month’s time in South Africa. Given he stays fit enough, Pujara could be an option India need to seriously think about.

In the context of this Test, too, it was an important catch. In attempting to create the hard bouncy surface, Nagpur had rolled out a pretty friendly surface to begin with. There wasn’t disconcerting sideways movement in it, and it began to assist spin only later in the day. Sri Lanka had won the toss, and they had got off to a comfortable start. Samarawickrama, though, played an ill-advised drive on the up to give Ishant a wicket in the third over of his Test comeback.

That wicket taken, India turned the screws with tight lines and lengths. Circumspect batsmen played into their hands. Hardly any runs came in the first session came after the wicket, there were long barren spells, even singles involved risking a run-out, and eventually a big risk was taken seven minutes before lunch to give an India spinner a wicket for the first time in this series. R Ashwin was the man who struck in the 25th over when Lahiru Thirimanne played a big sweep after scoring just nine runs off 57 ball in the best batting conditions of the match.

Like buses, one nearly brought two as Ravindra Jadeja had Dimuth Karunanaratne stumped in his first over, but it turned out he had overstepped. That capped off a session sprinkled with good fortune for Karunaratane. He was on 14 when a 26-ball spell of no runs produced a risky single where he just about beat Pujara’s direct hit. Pressure not yet released, Karunaratne looked to go over mid-on a couple of overs later, but this time the overhead chance burst out of Pujara’s hands.

Kanrunaratne’s fortune continued post lunch as he survived an extremely tight lbw call through umpire’s call. His former skipper Angelo Mathews wasn’t as fortunate. Having shown some intent against Ashwin, Mathews missed a straight ball from Jadeja because his bat clipped the pad on its downswing and got displaced from the line of the ball. This one too returned an umpire’s call but had been given on the field.

Karunaratne and current captain Dinesh Chandimal then put together the most assured-looking batting spell of the day in a 62-run partnership. Chandimal had to take a couple of risks in the beginning – including a thick-edged six off Ashwin – but he settled in nicely. The tandem act of spinners was broken, and Umesh Yadav brought easier runs. Ashwin now began to bowl a defensive line to Chandimal, on off and middle, which was half a victory.

Just then, though, Karunaratne ran out of luck, and copped what in traditional sense was a rough lbw. From over the wicket, Ishant pitched short of a length and hit him in front. Barring appreciable seam movement, this ball had to either pitch outside leg or miss the stumps if it pitched within. The review, though, showed that the ball pitched within and shaped back in late and just enough to be clipping the off stump. This umpire’s call finally went against Karunaratne.

Chandimal and Niroshan Dickwella then saw Sri Lanka through to tea with a purposeful 29-run stand that punished the loose balls that came their way.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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