The Sri Lankan bowlers were yet again left anguished by the opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul as India cruised comfortably to 134 for no loss in the opening session of the Third Test. It was an easy peasy start for India who opted to bat first after Kohli won his third consecutive toss of the series.
The first hour was motivating for the Lankans despite the Indian duo taking strides rapidly to get settled. The host had two chances which didn’t go their way. If those two chances were grabbed, the Indian team would have been two wickets down with both Dhawan and Rahul out.
Meanwhile, here is a dropped catch of KL Rahul by a fielder at mid-on:
https://twitter.com/cricvids1/status/896252937277652992
The first chance came quite early, in the 3rd over, off the fifth delivery by newbie left arm fast bowler Vishwa Fernando. Dhawan pushed hard to drive a full away swinging delivery but failed to connect in the middle edging the ball in the slip cordon. Luckily, the ball did not carry and sneaked past the second slip fielder and run away for a boundary. It was a half chance but still, a considerable one as the pitch displayed good carry from ball one.
The session continued to be joyous for the Indians as Sri Lanka yet again looked out of ideas with the new ball bowlers failed to create the desired impact.
Chandimal had to finally lean on the most promising bowler – military medium Dimuth Karunaratne – quite early in the 8th over. He was effective and somehow plugged the run rate which had started to resemble the bowling chart of an ODI scorecard – floating at 6 runs per over.
Few overs down the line, in the 12th over, another chance popped up but went in vain again. Rahul, who batted with a passive aggressive approach, played the first miscalculated shot of session which virtually ended his innings before luck backed his case.
The tempting seam up delivery did its job when Rahul plays a rash shot, trying to go over the mid-wicket region. But, he mistimed his and could get only the toe-end of his bat to connect to the stroke. The ball went high and Kumara, approached it chasing it backwards at mid-on, but was late and failed to gather it cleanly.
The proceedings for the rest of the seassion was dictated by the Indian batting duo as they kept piling on the runs.
Lakshan Sandakan was brought as the last change in bowling a few over before Tea. The left arm chinaman looked promising and will perhaps operate for a lengthy spell in the upcoming session.
Earlier, Kohli had to make only one change while the rest of the team remained the same. All-rounder and Man of the Match in the previous game, Ravindra Jadeja, suspended from this game for accumulation of demerit points, was replaced by chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
Sri Lanka also had to enforce two changes. The loss of injured Nuwan Pradeep and rested Rangana Herat made way for Left arm fast bowler Vishwa Fernando and chinaman Lakshan Sandakan.