Ind Vs SL: India on the Verge of Kotla Test win over Sri Lanka
Dec 5, 2017 at 5:56 PM
Ind Vs SL: India on the Verge of Kotla win over Sri Lanka: As formidable India is on the brink of registering a 2-0 series win in the three-match Test series, struggling Sri Lanka was 31 for three in 16 overs on Tuesday at stumps on day four of the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi.
Dhananjaya de Silva is batting on 13 off 30 balls Angelo Mathews faced two balls and is yet to open his account.
Interestingly, De Silva’s innings included a solitary six and is yet to register a boundary.
As visitors require another 379 runs to win that is highly-likely an improbable task for the Lions – to go past while batting on the fifth-day surface.
As the pitch is doing a bit, in the second innings score of 14, Sri Lanka lost the wicket of Sadeera Samarawickrama (5 off 15).
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Samarawickrama got a beauty from Shami which saw Ajinkya Rahane completing a decent catch.
The second man-to-go was left-handed Dimuth Karunaratne (13 off 46) when wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha caught him.
Nightwatchman Suranga Lakmal got a peach of a delivery which dislodged the bails.
The left-arm orthodox spinner Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers in the third session of day three when he claimed two wickets. Jadeja conceded five runs in five overs, as fast bowler Mohammed Shami gave away eight runs in three overs.
In a bid to chase down the total of 410 at Kotla after first innings deficit of 163 runs, Sri Lanka lost wickets quickly that subsequently piled up the misery for the visiting camp on the penultimate day of the Test fixture in Kotla which was hit by mask controversy.
Earlier, Sri Lanka started off the proceedings on day three with the overnight score of 356 for nine.
However, the visitors added 17 runs which further saw skipper Dinesh Chandimal was dismissed by Ishant Sharma when the former was caught by Shikhar Dhawan.
For India, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma claimed three wickets each as Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Shami picked two wickets each during the Islanders first innings.
After batting in the second innings, India declared on 246 for five in 52.5 overs when Rohit Sharma reached the half-century after facing 49 deliveries.
On the other side, Jadeja remained not out on four off four balls.
Chandimal used five bowlers who went on to share wicket apiece.
For India, Shikhar Dhawan followed by skipper Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma smashed the fifties each, as Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed on 49 off 66 balls after being caught by Angelo Mathews on the bowling of Dhananjaya de Silva.
In second innings, India lost the first-wicket in the form of Murali Vijay on 10 in 12.1 overs.
Vijay (9 off 12) nicked the ball, and gloveman Niroshan Dickwella accepted the regulation catch.
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Dhawan scored 91-ball 67 as his innings was comprised of five boundaries and a six.
Unfortunately, Ajinkya Rahane’s dip in form had taken a toll on the right-handed batsman, as he trudged off the ground on ten off 37 balls when he was caught by Lakshan Sandakan.
Kohli, who is having a merry-run, was removed by Lahiru Game while accelerating the innings. He was caught by Suranga Lakmal when he was batting on 50 off 58 balls.
He struck three boundaries to score at the strike-rate of 86.21.