IND v SL, 2nd Test, Review: India take 1-0 lead as the visitors surrender meekly

India defeated Sri Lanka by an innings and 239 runs in the second Test of the three-match series and took 1-0 lead. This was also the joint largest margin of victory which they had managed against Bangladesh in 2007. The visitors surrendered meekly on the fourth day and never looked to survive on a track which had little demons in it. However, the lead has made sure India will not lose the series now and there is also a little chance that Sri Lanka would turn the tables on them in the final Test as well.

Lahiru Thirimanne and Dimuth Karunaratne strode out to the middle with their team staring towards a huge deficit. They were expected to dig in and make the Indian bowlers work hard. But what transpired in the first session was extremely disappointing as they kept on gifting their wickets to the hosts. Karunaratne was unfortunate to hit the ball straight into the hands of forward short leg fielder off R Ashwin. Then his overnight partner just lobbed a wide delivery of Umesh Yadav into the hands of Ravindra Jadeja.

Even the senior pro Angelo Mathews played an irresponsible shot to give Jadeja his first wicket of the morning. Only Dinesh Chandimal notched up the half-century like he did in the first-innings and tried to fight for his team in the losing cause. But the batsmen around kept on throwing away their wickets and never really took the game away from India. The procession continued as Niroshan Dickwella got a snorter of a delivery from Ishant Sharma.

Dasun Shanaka, the all-rounder, came out to bat with a surprising approach and hit a couple of sixes off Ashwin. However, he lost his wicket to the same bowler looking for another on 17 off just 8 balls. Suranga Lakmal and Chandimal denied the hosts a win before lunch in an extended session but the formalities were completed soon after the break. Umesh Yadav and Ashwin picked the remaining two wickets as the latter became the fastest bowler to reach 300 wickets in the history of Test cricket.

Ashwin achieved the remarkable feat in 54 Tests surpassing the legends like Dennis Lillee and Muttiah Muralitharan who managed to do so in 56 and 58 matches respectively. The off-spinner finished with 8 wickets in the match and returned with the figures of 4/63 in the second innings. Ishant, Jadeja and Yadav scalped two each and supported him well as India bundled out Sri Lanka for a paltry score of 166.

What happened earlier?

After losing the toss, Indian bowlers bowled exceptionally well and skittled out the visitors for just 205 runs on the first day itself. In reply, the batsmen piled up the runs as Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma smashed centuries. The skipper Virat Kohli went a step ahead of all and scored his fifth double century of Test career to take the score of the team to 610 and declared with a whopping lead of 405 runs.

Sri Lanka then crumbled without showing any fight in their second innings as only their skipper tried to lead from the front. The third Test will be played in Delhi now as they will look to level the series and save the blushes. India, on the other hand, will look to steamroll Sri Lanka yet again before the limited overs leg begins.

Brief Scores

Sri Lanka 205 & 166 (D Chandimal 61; R Ashwin 4/63)

India 610/6decl (V Kohli 213, C Pujara 143, M Vijay 123, R Sharma 102*)

Result: India won by an innings and 239 runs

Man of the Match Virat Kohli