Ashwin completes 300 Test wickets, India crush hapless Lanka
By Paritosh Pramanik
NAGPUR, Nov 27
AFTER the first day’s play, Sri Lankan coach Nic Pothas had said his players were empowered to play their shots. On Monday, after his side surrendered meekly by an innings and 239 runs to India, he was again asked about his batsmen’s failure. The coach said his batsmen “hit the bats on their heads.”
It took just a session and a bit more for India to nail the ‘headless’ Lankan batting. They motored to a thumping win in three and a half days with Ravichandran Ashwin cruising to fastest 300 wickets in Test cricket. The win, India’s joint biggest has given the hosts an unassailable 1-0 lead.
Ashwin was not even born when Australian pacer Dennis Lillee took 300 Test wickets from 56 matches in 1981. Thirty-six years later, 31-year-old Ashwin climbed to top of the chart by taking 300 wickets in lesser number of matches (54) when he bowled Lahiru Gamage after lunch. His match figures read 130 for eight from 45.4 overs.
Local boy Umesh Yadav, who made his home international debut in this match, took two wickets in the innings to stand on the cusp of reaching of his personal milestone of 100 wickets in Tests. His tally stands at 99 from 35 matches.
It was never easy for Sri Lanka to lose the first day and then make a come back against the World Number 1 Test team.
Resuming the day at 21-1, Sri Lankan batsmen fell like nine pins losing wickets in heap. Their ordeal ended at 166 runs.
Wiping out India’s lead of 384 was always going to be an arduous task. For that, Lanka needed the grit and patience of Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara. None of the Sri Lankan batsmen showed stomach to stand in the middle and buy time.
After Dimuth Karunaratne got out to a freaky catch by Murali Vijay at forward short-leg, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews Niroshan Dickwella, Dasun Shanaka, all gift-wrapped their wickets to the Indian bowlers. Former captain Mathews disappointed again by giving a simple catch off Ravindra Jadeja to Rohit Sharma at mid-off.
Shanaka went for Ashwin and hit two sixes in same over but
that little cameo ended when he ballooned a simple catch to KL Rahul.
Sri Lankan batsmen scooped, lobbed and skied their hits to give some catch practice to the Indian fielders.
With eight wickets down and India in total command, lunchtime was extended to 15 minutes to see whether
Kohli’s men could complete the formalities.
However, Sri Lanka managed to hang on with captain Dinesh Chandimal and Suranga Lakmal. Chandimal stood alone at one end for his fighting 61 from 82 balls while Lakmal added 31 from 42 balls as the eighth wicket
partnership produced 58 runs, the best of Sri Lanka’s second innings. Chandimal’s dismissal, a few overs after lunch,
meant Kohli will reach
South Africa with a record of not having lost a Test series as a
captain.
Chandimal admitted his team was outplayed from Day One. “It was a good toss to win. Unfortunately, we were outplayed from the first day. Our batting let us down again,” he said.
Kohli said the pitch was good to bat but was on a slower side. “The pitch was good to bat on. It was on the slower side, but there was nothing much happening from the pitch. I just wanted to bat the way I bat, get into good position, rotate strike, and score quickly so our bowlers have time to bowl the opposition out. We will need that overseas so I was looking at doing that here as well,” said Kohli.
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