Ravindra Jadeja became only the sixth man in the history of Test cricket to score more than 150 in an innings and take a five-wicket haul and Ravichandran Ashwin went past former India captain Kapil Dev’s wicket tally as India hammered Sri Lanka by a huge margin of an innings and 222 runs inside three days of the first Test at IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali on Sunday.
Jadeja was the star performer for India in the first Test of the two match series, scoring 175 not out in the first innings and taking an overall match haul of 9/87, to power India to a massive victory on Sunday. After declaring their first innings at a huge total of 574/8, India bowled out a lowly Sri Lanka side for paltry totals of 174 and 178 in the two innings to take an unassailable 1-0 lead in the series.
The day began with Sri Lanka battling hard at 108/4 and looking to bat deep while the pitch was still favourable to batsmen. The ball had started turning, towards the later part of the second day, which had encouraged Jadeja to deny himself an opportunity to score a maiden double century in Test cricket, and give his side a crack at the Sri Lankan batsmen wh0 were exhausted having being out on the field under the scorching sun for a large part of the first two days of the match.
The young Pathum Nissanka led the fightback for Sri Lanka with a brilliant half-century in the first innings, but the visitors were let down by the rest of the batsmen who continued to get of starts but failed to convert them into anything worth mentioning. Nissanka scored 61 not out from 133 balls in the first innings with the help of 11 boundaries, but he was not supported enough by the other batsmen who continue to struggle against Indian bowlers.
The pair of Nissanka and Charith Asalanka had kept India at bay on the third day morning as Sri Lanka looked to stage a fightback. But the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah broke their stubborn partnership, with the Indian fast bowler using a slow delivery to square up Asalanka in front of the wickets, for 29 from 64 balls with the help of 5 boundaries.
Once again, one wicket brought another but in this case for Sri Lanka, the floodgates truly opened. Niroshan Dickwella (2), Suranga Lakmal (0), Vishwa Fernando (0) and Lahiru Kumara (0) all fell to Jadeja while Mohammed Shami accounted for Lasith Embuldeniya, who also did not open his account.
From 108/4 at the start of play on the third day morning, Sri Lanka lost 66/6 in an embarrassing display of batting at the top level of the competition and on a pitch which carried no demons for batsmen.
Jadeja returned with splendid figures of 13-4-41-5 whereas the likes of Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin claimed 2 wickets each while Shami got 1.
India captain R Sharma was certainly encouraged by the fact that his bowlers were well and truly on top against the Sri Lankan batsmen, as he invited Sri Lanka to bat again — follow-on — right after the last man fell while the teams were still on the field.
Ashwin continued to maintain his dominance over Sri Lanka opening batsman Lahiru Thirimanne, dismissing the left-hander for a nine-ball duck before lunch on the third day.
A body blow came in the form of the dismissal of the dismissal of Nissanka post the lunch break, with Ashwin outfoxing the batsmen but a beautiful delivery bowled in the channel of his off-stump, drawing the batsman forward. Nissanka could not prevent getting an edge, and Rishabh Pant grabbed up a sharp catch to leave Sri Lanka struggling at 19/2.
A brief stand between Angelo Mathews and Dimuth Karunaratne kept India waiting for another 10 overs also but Shami broke through to have the Sri Lankan captain caught behind for 27, for which he faced 46 balls and hit 6 boundaries. To their credit, those in the middle order did put up strong resistance but could not prevent or rather, delay, the inevitable. Angelo Mathews perished for 28 from 75 balls as Jadeja trapped him in front of the wickets for leg-before while the Indian all-rounder had Dhananjaya de Silva caught by Shreyas Iyer for a well-made 30 from 58 balls with 5 boundaries.
Asalanka came out with the only intent of attacking and he played one shot too many in the second innings to be dismissed for 20 from 9 balls, falling to Ashwin. Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella did well to play a counter-attacking innings while the others fell around him on regular basis. The left-handed batsman remained unbeaten on 51, which came from 81 balls and 9 boundaries.
The rest of the Sri Lankan batting could not trouble the scorers much as they were shot out for just 178, with India winning the contest by a huge margin of an innings and 222 runs.
Jadeja was once again the star performer with the ball, returning with 16-5-46-4 whereas Ashwin was not too far behind with his figure of 21-5-47-4.
India completed a comprehensive victory in the third session on the third day to earn two full days of rest. The two teams will now travel to Bangalore where they will meet for the second and final Test of the series starting at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 12, which will be the first-ever day-night Test between these two Asian rivals.
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.
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