GALLE: Sri Lanka slid towards a four-day Test defeat against the world’s no. 1 ranked side India losing by a sizeable margin of 304 runs at the Galle International Stadium yesterday.
Set an improbable target of 550 to win, Sri Lanka folded up in their second innings for 245 in the final session of the fourth day with Asela Gunaratne and acting captain Rangana Herath unable to bat due to injuries.
The result was not surprising losing to a team that was on a role having won their last seven Test series on the trot. What was disappointing was the lack of application displayed by the Sri Lanka batsmen to put up a better performance than they did in the two innings. Sri Lanka made 291 in their first innings and 245 in the second in reply to India’s 600 and 240-3 declared.
Of course one had to bear in mind that Sri Lanka throughout the Test was without Asela Gunaratne and had only ten batsmen. In the second innings acting skipper Rangana Herath joined him not wanting to risk his swollen bowling finger.
In that context Sri Lanka’s performance could be termed a gutsy one, but it didn’t quite reflect what they are truly capable of. The Galle pitch even on the fourth day was still good for batting with only the odd ball turning sharply or giving that extra bounce.
It was a pitch that once you had settled in you could go and easily get a hundred. In Sri Lanka’s case Upul Tharanga (65) and Angelo Mathews (83) in the first innings and Niroshan Dickwella (67) and Dimuth Karunaratne (97) in the second innings failed to do that. They could easily take a leaf from the Indian notebook and see how their batsmen adapted to the pitch and built their innings with three of them scoring hundreds.
Virat Kohli the Indian captain became the third moving to his 17th Test hundred in double quick time when he resumed from his overnight score of 76.
India added 51 runs off 39 balls batting for half an hour before declaring at 240-3. Kohli completed a fine century off 133 balls with five fours and a six - his unbeaten knock pushing his Test career average above the 50 mark.
Angelo Mathews held the key to how Sri Lanka got about in their second innings but his failure to repeat his first innings performance – being dismissed for two, meant that there wasn’t much left in the tank. And so it proved although Karunaratne with Kusal Mendis and then with Niroshan Dickwella delayed the inevitable.
Before his innings yesterday, Karunaratne averaged only 9.85 in seven innings against India. He somewhat set the record straight with a fighting knock of 97 off 209 balls (9 fours) once again proving what a fourth innings player he is.
Karunaratne somehow has the knack of always churning out runs in the second innings no matter how tough conditions are and this is proved by his track record in Tests where he averages 42.14 in the second innings compared to 27.32 in the first.
Mendis (36) helped Karunaratne add 79 for the third wicket after Upul Tharanga and Danushka Gunathilaka had perished early making Sri Lanka 29-2 before edging a Jadeja delivery to wicket-keeper Saha.
Dickwella only knows to play one way and that is being aggressive from the start. Regardless of how his team is positioned he is one batsman who plays his natural game. Yesterday he swept, reverse swept, cut and drove with flair to score 67 off 94 balls (10 fours) out of a partnership of 101 with Karunaratne before getting a top edge on the sweep shot to give Ashwin his first wicket of the innings.
Ashwin also had the wickets Karunaratne and Nuwan Pradeep at the same score of 240 as the Sri Lanka innings quickly folded up. Jadeja drove the final nail in the coffin by having Lahiru Kumara caught by Shami at mid-off leaving Dilruwan Perera unbeaten on 21 to add to his 92 not out in the first innings.
Dhawan for his knock of 190 in the Indian first innings was named Man of the Match.
India leads the three-match series 1-0. The second Test starts at the SSC on August 3.