India complete sweep with 238-run victory

BENGALURU: India extinguished whatever little spark Sri Lanka showed and wrapped up the second Test inside three days for a comprehensive 238-run win, completing a 2-0 whitewash of the Islanders, here on Monday.

While two wins against Sri Lanka fetched India 24 points but Rohit Sharma’s men remain in fifth position in World Championship table due to ‘low percentage points’ (54.16) despite 77 points in their kitty.

A herculean task at hand, Sri Lanka took the field on the third day with a lot of determination but it was always going to be tough to negotiate the Indian attack on a track that has been offering turn and uneven bounce from day one. Resuming at 28 for one in pursuit of an improbable 447-run target, the Sri Lankan batters, led by skipper Dimuth Karunaratne (107), resisted the Indian attack for some time before folding for 208 in the post-tea session.

Left-handed Karunaratne raised his 14th Test century with a boundary off Jasprit Bumrah. He took some time to settle but worked the ball around swiftly, consistently placing them in the gaps. Bumrah (3/23) eventually sent him back with slightly seaming ball that beat his bat to shatter the stumps.

The lethal Indian fast bowler, who consistently made life tough for the Lankans, returned with match figures of 8 for 47, having taken a fifer at home for the first time in the first innings. Ravichandran Ashwin (4/55), Axar Patel (2/37) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/48) did their bit in wrapping up the Lankan innings. India now have won all three pink-ball Tests at home, having beaten beating Bangladesh (in Kolkata, 2019) and England (in Ahmedabad, 2021) before.

Visitors’ early positive intent, something which has not been witnessed much in this series, resulted in a rare productive batting session for the Lankans who collected 123 runs for loss of three wickets.