India extinguished whatever little spark Sri Lanka showed and wrapped up the second Test within three days for a comprehensive 238-run victory, ending the Islanders 2-0 in Bengaluru on Monday.
A tough task at hand, Sri Lanka took the field with a lot of determination on the third day, but it was always going to be tough to negotiate an Indian attack on a track that offered turn and uneven bounce from day one.
Chasing an impossible target of 447, the Sri Lankan batsmen led by skipper Dimuth Karunaratne (107) briefly resisted the Indian attack before scoring 208 for one in the post-tea session.
Captain Rohit Sharma said, “It has been a good run, and I have enjoyed it personally and as a team. We wanted to achieve certain things as a team, and we have done that.” First chain on top.
He talked about the positives that emerged from the two-match series.
We have seen Jadeja grow as a batsman and he seems to be getting better and better. Shreyas carried on from where he left off in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. He knew he was stepping into the big shoes of people like Rahane and Pujara, but he has everything he needs. Rishabh seems to be getting better with each of his games,” the captain eloquently expressed.
Left-armer Karunaratne, the most consistent performer for Sri Lanka in recent times, scored his 14th Test century off Jasprit Bumrah. He took some time to settle down but kept on moving the ball around and in the gap continuously.
Bumrah (3/23) eventually sent him back with a slightly seamed delivery that hit his bat to shatter the stumps. The deadly Indian pacer, who consistently made life difficult for the Lankans, made a comeback with match figures of 8 for 47, taking a half-century 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 to wrap up the Sri Lankan innings.
India have now won all three pink-ball Tests at home, beating Bangladesh (Kolkata, in 2019) and England (Ahmedabad, 2021).
Two victories against Sri Lanka gave India 24 points but Rohit Sharma’s men’s ‘low percentage points’ (54.16) remain in fifth place in the World Championship table. He has 77 points in his kitty.
Early positive intentions from the visitors, something that has not been seen much in this series, resulted in a rare productive batting session for Sri Lanka, who scored 123 for the loss of three wickets. Taking a positive but cautious approach, both Kusal Mendis (54 off 60 balls) and Karunaratne used their feet with confidence to counter the Indian spinners.
Mendis was impressive on both the front and back legs as he pulled and shredded the short-pitched stuff and used his feet to cut the spin.
Karunaratne followed a similar plan as he dropped the wicket but Mendis was more expressive.
Mendis completed his half-century with a single off Jadeja but lost by flight to Ashwin and was stumped by Rishabh Pant.
This ended their 96-run fight for the second wicket. From there, it was a slide downhill for visitors. Jadeja clean bowled Angelo Mathews (1) and Ashwin got Dhananjay de Silva (4) caught at forward short leg.
Karunaratne was caught out by the umpire off Jadeja’s delivery, but the Sri Lankan captain survived, using the DRS to show that the ball had kissed the thigh pad and bat before reaching Pant’s glove. He completed his half-century with a single off Axar, which removed Ashwin from the pavilion end.
A small partnership began to develop between Karunaratne and Dickwella (12), while Mohammed Shami troubled the batsmen with his pace.
Akshar broke the 55-run stand when he stumped Dickwella and sent Charit Aslanka (5) caught at backward short leg, where skipper Rohit Sharma took a simple catch.
Like in the first innings, Dickwella did nothing in the beginning.