Jadeja bags five, India seal series
TOO STRONG The leftarm spinner breaks Sri Lanka’s resistance on Day 4, handing India an innings win to clinch the series with a game left
Jadeja picked up five wickets to help India wrap up the series by completing an innings and 53-run win over Sri Lanka on the fourth afternoon of the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground on Sunday.
The demolition comes in the midst of a dream run for India, which started at this venue two years ago when they nailed Sri Lanka 2-1 in a hard-fought contest. Since then they have vanquished every opponent, beating South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia with this being their eighth successive Test series win.
Following-on after conceding a 439-run lead, Sri Lanka were all out for 386. Before the bowlers took over, India’s fourth-wicket pair of Cheteshwar Pujara (133) and Ajinkya Rahane (132) and the lower-order had put the game beyond the home team by amassing 622 for nine declared after Virat Kohli had won a crucial toss and elected to bat.
SOME RESISTANCE
Having clinched the first two Tests of the series, the third Test at Kandy has been reduced to a dead rubber.
After crashing to a 304-run defeat in the first Test and then shot out for 183 in the first innings, Sri Lanka finally showed some fight in the second innings. Fighting centuries by opener Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis stretched the game into the second session of the fourth day.
The opening batsman scored a dogged 141 and Mendis hit a counter-attacking 110. But it will be of little consolation for the hosts, reduced to whipping boys by their dominant neighbours.
After struggling against the off-spin of R Ashwin in the first innings, the Sri Lanka batsmen found the going tough against the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja on Sunday.
Jadeja came to the fore when Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews looked good to take the fight to the visitors. He first removed the left-handed opener for 141, giving him no chance with a ball which exploded off the pitch.
RAHUL LET-OFF
One of the most experienced batsmen in the Sri Lanka ranks, Karunaratne’s was crucial for Sri Lanka’s chances of saving the second Test.
Next over, Jadeja had former skipper Mathews caught behind and followed it up with the scalp of Dilruwan Perea for his fourth wicket of the innings, reducing the hosts to 327 for seven. Ajinkya Rahane pulled off a low catch in front of him to get Dhananjaya de Silva and help Jadeja complete his fifer.
In the morning, Jadeja had prised out captain Dinesh Chandimal (2) cheaply. Jadeja would have ended Sri Lanka’s resistance much earlier but KL Rahul spilled a straight forward chance offered by Karunaratne on 95, having added just three runs to his overnight score.
At the lunch break, there would have been some doubts in the Indian dressing room as Sri Lanka were just 137 runs short of making India bat again, and another good session would have left Virat Kohli’s team ruing the decision to enforce the follow-on.
But the self-belief in this team is strong enough to tide over any situation, and once they got the breakthrough, it was over in a jiffy. It has been an all-round team effort and the most satisfied will be chief coach Ravi Shastri, for whom it is the first assignment of his new innings with the Indian team.