Team India continued their dominance over the Lankans and finished Day 2 of the 3rd and the final Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi in the driver’s seat. Captain Virat Kohli who has been making a mockery of the Sri Lankan bowling attack so far yet again pulled out an array of strokes and completed his 6th Test double century, the joint best by Indian batsmen alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
Sri Lanka responded shakily by losing two quick wickets, but sensible batting by Angelo Mathews and skipper Dinesh Chandimal ensured Sri Lanka reached 131/3 at the end of the day’s play. The day didn’t start off on a positive note for India as they lost overnight batsman Murali Vijay in the first 10 minutes of play.
Ajinkya Rahane failed to impress again and returned with single digit score for the 4th time in the series. His form will be an area of concern for Virat Kohli but given his performances in overseas conditions he should be in good stead when India travels to South Africa later in the year for a three-match Test series, 6 ODI’s and 3 T20I’s.
It was skipper Kohli and Rohit Sharma who shared a brilliant partnership for the 5th wicket. Both looked in complete control of proceedings and struck some delightful shots in the process. Kohli in the process brought up his 6th Test double century and all of them have come in the last 17 months. He has been carrying a rich vein of form, and if he can replicate even half of what he has done in the home season during India’s tour of South Africa, then there is a genuine possibility that India might end up winning their maiden Test series in South Africa.
Rohit Sharma who struck a century in the previous encounter struck seven fours and a couple of huge sixes en route to his 65 before falling to the left-arm chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan. He took on the spinners with utmost comfort and kept on ticking the scoreboard along. The Sri Lankan team was affected by the smog as most of the team members were seen wearing masks at the post-lunch session.
The quality of air was pretty poor, and 4 Sri Lankan players ended up vomiting a Sri Lankan spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Cricbuzz. After several stops and starts, Indian skipper Kohli finally decided to declare the innings and gestured towards his team to come back and resume the bowling duties. Kohli’s decision came at a time when the Sri Lankan players were trying to convince the umpires that they didn’t have enough players to field for them.
Mohammed Shami removed opener Dimuth Karunaratne with a peach of a delivery outside the off-stump. The ball moved away just a bit which took the outside edge of his bat and was safely pouched by Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps. Ishant Sharma gave the hosts the 2nd breakthrough when he trapped Dhananjaya de Silva right in front of the ball which jagged back sharply after pitching.
India dropped a couple of sitters in the slip cordon with captain Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan the culprits. Dilruwan Perera who was sent up the order to open the innings scored a fluent 42 but gave several chances in the process. From there on it was former skipper Angelo Mathews and current skipper Dinesh Chandimal who batted sensibly and ensured that Sri Lanka went to stumps without the loss of any further wickets.
