Kolkata: The Indian test team completed yet another victory as they thrashed the Sri Lankans by an innings and 171 runs to seal the series 3-0 and romp to their eight successive Test series win.
The fate of the match was more or less decided on the second day itself where Hardik Pandya’s fireworks with the bat and Kuldeep Yadav’s magic with the ball had destroyed all hopes of a Sri Lankan comeback and it was just about time till the inevitable happened.
India, who had reduced Sri Lanka to 19/1 at the end of the second day shot them out for a meagre 181 to register an emphatic victory by an innings and 171 runs. This was India’s second biggest away win after they had beaten Bangladesh by an innings and 239 runs seven years back in Dhaka.
Ashwin the wrecker-in-chief as he spun the hosts out of the match and it was only fitting that he dismissed the last batsman Lahiru Kumara to pull of one of India’s most dominant performances in a series.
Mohammad Shami also got into the act and had three scalps to his name conceding 32 runs.
Courtesy this huge win, Virat Kohli the becomes the first Indian captain to whitewash a team in overseas conditions (in a series of minimum three tests).
Other than wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella (41), skipper Dinesh Chandimal (36) and Angelo Mathews (35) none of the batsmen could put up a fight against the quality Indian bowling as things turned out to be pretty easy for India at the end.
Not only this match, but the series as a matter of fact has been of the most one-sided ones in recent times. India would undoubtedly be a happy bunch as they excelled in all the departments of the game. The top order got runs, with Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara getting two centuries each. KL Rahul, who played just two test matches carried on from where he left against Australia earlier this year as he helped himself to two fifties. Skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane both got a hundred each. All-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya was amongst the runs and both the spinners and the pacers got loads of wickets which helped the visitors make further inroads into the Sri Lankan batting.
Overall, it was one complete performance in the series and the number one side would indeed be high on confidence as they have finished all three matches in less than five days time.
Ravi Shastri’s stint as the head coach began on a really good note as the Indians would want to carry on in this same manner in the limited overs’ series against the same opposition.
Man of the match- Hardik Pandya
Man of the series- Shikhar Dhawan