Ravindra Jadeja’s scintillating all-round performance put India firmly on course for a huge innings victory, his five-wicket haul helped the hosts end Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 174 on the third day of the first Test in Mohali.
After being 400 runs behind India’s first innings score of 574, Sri Lanka scored 10 for 1 at lunch in their second innings.
Virat Kohli’s 100th Test and Rohit Sharma’s first as captain turned out to be a match for Jadeja as he took 5 for 41 in 13 overs, with the islanders crashing in just 45 overs.
Worse, Sri Lanka lost six for 13 at 161 for four after the first hour, with Pathum Nisanka (61 not out off 133 balls) and Charit Aslank adding 58 runs.
Everything changed after Jasprit Bumrah (2/36 in 14 overs) trapped Aslanka leg before.
The batsmen who came after that didn’t show enough application to stay put and some of the shot selections were, to say the least, atrocious.
Niroshan Dickwella (2)’s slog sweep off Jadeja was the most indecisive as he top-edged Shreyas Iyer at square leg.
Suranga Lakmal escaped with a DRS, but soon went out to offer only a skier to Ashwin and then it took a while for his first innings to turn.
Ashwin (2/49) and Mohammed Shami (1/27) also recorded their names on the wickets column, with the islanders not even appearing in the context.
Jadeja has taken his 20th five-wicket haul in Test cricket and there are no points to predict who will be the player of the match if India complete the formalities.
In Sri Lanka’s second innings, Ashwin hit the new ball, dismissed Lahiru Thirimanne, who was caught by captain Rohit at second slip. Ashwin is now one less than Kapil Dev’s 434 wickets.
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