It is not often that an all-rounder gets the opportunity to score a Test double hundred — for all-rounders do not necessarily find a place in Test teams as often as they used to some years ago, barring if you Are Australia and are compulsorily playing a specialist all-rounder irrespective of the pitch and conditions.
On Saturday, India's Ravindra Jadeja was not only looking for a lot more runs beyond the 200-run mark, but he was on the cusp of producing something even more special than what he did against a battered and depleted Sri Lankan cricket team. But having batted for as many as 228 balls, having hit 17 boundaries and 3 sixes while getting a chance to bat at No 7, Jadeja had a bout of mercy on the Sri Lankans, who had been on the field since the start of the first Test at the IS Bindra stadium in Mohali.
Having noticed the old ball turning and surprising the batsmen, Jadeja thought that time was ripe to start stop piling further misery on Sri Lanka in terms of scoreboard total, and rather, hunt down their embattled batsmen who had chased the leather for the best part of the first two days of this match.
Jadeja sent a message to the Indian dressing room that he was ready for the team to declare — and it ended at a humongous score of 574/8. Jadeja eventually finished at 175 not out, his only second century in Test cricket and indeed, its highest individual total.
Jadeja not only made his best score and performance with the bat, he also outscored many of his vaunted teammates who failed one after another in converting their knocks. On the first day of this match, R Sharma was dismissed for 28, V Kohlii fell for 45, but the Mayank Agarwal was dismissed for 33 and Shreyas Iyer was removed for 27. The explosive Rishabh Pant was is the only specialist batsmen who converted his knock, making a 97-ball 96 on the first day to put India past 350-run mark to take them to a commanding position in the game.
If Pant provided the Indian innings the impetus, the innings from Jadeja pummelled the Sri Lankans into submission. The visiting team looked drained, their shoulders were dropping off and they were waiting for India's eventual: declaration sometime in the second session on Saturday.
Sri Lanka knew that they would need to bat out of their skins in order to get anywhere close to the effort that Indians had made with the bat. Their best batting pair in captain Dimuth Karunaratne and left-handed opening batsman Lahiru Thirimanne did well at the start to keep India at the bay for more than an hour.
Ravichandran Ashwin drew the first blood in the 19th over when he trapped Thirimanne in front of wickets. The Sri Lankan opener made a mistake of calling for DRS, as he was a just out leg-before for 17 from 60 balls with the help of 1 boundary. For India, this breakthrough got them another as Jadeja came into the attack for the first time and struck on the second ball itself, removing the Sri Lankan captain Karunaratne for a 71-ball 28.
India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah usually is very disciplined in his art but he had a disappointing moment late on Saturday when a beautiful delivery that went through the defence of Pathum Nissanka and crashed into his wickets was called a no-ball for overstepping by the third umpire.
For those in the Sri Lankan camp as fans and supporters, it was indeed a blessing in disguise since the Nissanka has been in terrific form and he is one batsman to watch out for in the Sri Lankan lineup. The right-handed diminutive batsman did not disappoint thereon, reaching 26 not out from 75 balls with the help of 4 boundaries to keep the fight going for the Sri Lankan side.
At stumps, Sri Lanka were 108/4 in the reply to India's humongous total of 574/8 in the first innings. The visitors were trailing by another 466 runs and they will have to produce an incredible fightback with the bat in order to prevent India from storming to a huge victory in the contest.
Apart from Karunaratne and Thirimanne who both disappointed after getting starts, the former Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews was equally guilty as he perished for 22 from 39 balls, trapped leg-before in one of the closest calls off Bumrah.
Earlier in the day, two teams observed silence for a minute at the start of the dat on the shocking demise of the greatest legspinner Shane Warne, who was found dead at his villa somewhere in Thailand where he was holidaying with his friends. Earlier on Friday, Australian and world cricket had already been lost to one of the finest wicketkeepers witnessed from Down Under, Rodney Marsh.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
Read All Articles >
