Ravindra Jadeja grew to become the primary Indian in 50 years to make 150-plus and take a five-for in the identical Test as India hammered Sri Lanka by an innings and 222 runs in Mohali. The guests couldn’t surpass Jadeja’s unbeaten 175 of their first innings of 174, and barely managed to take action of their follow-on effort of 178. In all, they misplaced 16 wickets on the third day of the primary Test, and their mixed tally of 125 overs throughout each innings fell wanting the 129.2 India confronted in the one ins they batted and declared on 574.
It could also be worthwhile to recall a number of the Indian landmarks on this Test, as a result of so far as the competitors is worried, there was nearly none. Rohit Sharma started his Test captaincy with a thumping victory, Virat Kohli had an honest outing of 45 in his a hundredth Test throughout which he went previous 8,000 runs, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane weren’t missed within the first Test in a decade which had neither , and Ravichandran Ashwin went previous Kapil Dev’s 434 Test wickets to turn into the second-most profitable bowler for India behind Anil Kumble.
The scorecard might scream ‘dustbowl’ to some contemplating the Indian spinners picked up 15 of the 20 Sri Lankan wickets, and the match was over inside three days. The actuality is that India had misplaced solely eight wickets themselves in almost 5 periods of batting; and even on the third day, breaking by way of may have taken some laborious work provided that Sri Lanka had been within the temper for one thing that may have come near resembling a contest.
It truly took India an hour to strike on Sunday morning after the Sri Lankans resumed their first innings on 108 for 4. As Ashwin would say later, it was laborious to get batsmen out on this pitch in the event that they weren’t attacking. Rohit used two brief midwickets and a brief further cowl however they hardly acquired something uppish, though their presence stored the batsmen quiet. Ashwin was beating the bat but additionally the stumps, and edges weren’t carrying to slide.
Ravindra Jadeja with the match ball after taking 5 wickets. (PTI Photo)
Enter Jasprit Bumrah, with a shock dipping off-cutter from around the stumps that straightened alarmingly after slanting in sharply. It would have been unplayable for any batsman, and Charith Asalanka was the unlucky one on this event.
That was the cue for Sri Lanka to self-destruct. Niroshan Dickwella got here out sweeping and even when it may need labored for some time towards Ashwin if performed fastidiously, it wasn’t advisable towards Jadeja. Especially when the ball was bursting in from outdoors the left-hander’s off stump, and there was a deepish sq. leg in addition to a backward sq. leg. The former devoured up a high edge.
Suranga Lakmal was the very best consultant of Sri Lanka’s way of thinking. In each innings. As quickly as he got here in, he charged at Jadeja solely to present mid-off and mid-on catching observe for a few geese. In no time, Jadeja had ripped out the tail, and Sri Lanka had gone from 161 for 4 within the 58th over to 174 all out in 65. Pathum Nissanka, who had had two lives, was stranded on an in any other case resolutely-compiled 61.
Ravindra Jadeja performs a shot. (File)
Jadeja had as soon as spoken about it being a dream to make a century and take 5 wickets in the identical Test, and right here he realized that dream. As Rohit mentioned about him, “Hunger drives athletes forward.” And this refined model of Jadeja is nothing if not hungry, be it with bat or ball.
No battle The solely starvation that may very well be related to Sri Lanka, as with all residing being, was the fundamental one to refuel. In the 4 overs between the beginning of their follow-on innings and lunch, they misplaced Lahiru Thirimanne, edging to the slips for his umpteenth fall at Ashwin’s arms.
If the pace-bowling genius had come from Bumrah within the first innings, it got here from Mohammed Shami after the interval. A brief ball was adopted by a pacy, pitched-up supply from around the wicket, bang on the stumps and transferring just a bit to take Dimuth Karunaratne’s edge behind.
The brief further cowl was to lastly come into motion when Dhananjaya de Silva discovered Jadeja’s size wasn’t all that driveable and popped it to the fielder. That’s the factor with Jadeja; His relentless accuracy will get highlighted on a regular basis, however just like the classical left-arm spinners of yore, he simply would not appear to reach the place the batsmen assume he’ll, forcing errors from them. Even two days earlier than the match within the nets, he’d overwhelmed Rohit first ball on the ahead defensive with flight, dip and switch.
There is not a lot to be mentioned about the remainder of the Sri Lankan follow-on, besides that Ashwin and Jadeja helped themselves to 4 wickets every, ending with six and 9 for the match respectively. Dickwella selected his strokes with a bit extra warning this time to make an unbeaten 51.
Sri Lanka had one fifty partnership in the whole match, whereas India had three century stands of their mortgage innings. It wasn’t simply that the guests have been completely outplayed, their batsmen barely gave the impression to be within the temper to place up any battle.
Skipper Karunaratne did not attempt to defend the indefensible. “The batters need to put their hands up and bat longer innings,” Karunaratne mentioned in the course of the post-match presentation. “When you are playing against India, you have to capitalize on the starts. It was easy to bat on this track, once you get in you have to score big. We were too defensive or too aggressive with the bat. We need to get a balance between both by rotating the strike and getting to the other end. That’s how you play a big innings.”
Constructing an enormous innings is prone to get more durable with the pink ball beneath lights within the second and last Test beginning in Bengaluru on March 12. That is a Saturday, so not less than the weekend crowd will get its cash’s value, prefer it did right here in Mohali, regardless of whether or not Sri Lanka develop the willingness to battle in per week.
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
