Colombo: Virat Kohli and his men in the whites have been an unstoppable bunch and on Sunday, they proved just that. Although Sri Lanka fought back for a brief period of time with centuries from Kusal Mendis on the third day and Dimuth Karunaratne on the fourth, the Indian bowling once again stepped up to the occasion and led their team to a massive win over the hosts by an innings and 53 runs.
When Kohli had enforced the follow-on on the third day after his bowlers had skittled out the Sri Lankans for a paltry 183, the hosts came up with a much improved batting display to defy India a win on the third day itself. But they couldn’t delay the inevitable as Ravindra Jadeja led the charge with a five-wicket haul that took the breath out of the Sri Lankan batting as what looked like a comeback turned into a collapse.
Barring Karunaratne and Mendis, none of the batsmen showed resistance as they were bowled out for 386, 53 runs short of India’s huge first innings total. Only Angelo Mathews (36) and wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella (31) were the other batsmen who crossed the 20-run mark.
This huge win not only helps India pocket the three-match series 2-0 but this was skipper Kohli’s second consecutive series win in Sri Lanka, with the first one coming in 2015 when India had come back from a defeat to win the Test series 2-1.
Although Ravindra Jadeja, the Man of the Match was happy with his performance,, his joy would be marred at the end of the day as he is suspended for the next and the final test match in Pallekele which begins on the 12th of this month.
Jadeja was found guilty of breaching article 2.2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Player and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “throwing a ball (or any other item of cricket equipment such as a water bottle) at or near a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other third person in an inappropriate and/or dangerous manner during an International Match.”
On the third day of the test match, Jadeja who bowled the 58th over, fielded the last ball of the over of his bowling and threw back the ball at the Dimuth Karunaratne, who was at the striker’s end. The umpires however interpreted the throw as as a one done, “in a dangerous manner” and fined Jadeja 50 % of his match fees along with the one-match ban.
Jadeja had accumulated three demerit points to his name after he breached 2.2.11 of the ICC code during India’s test against New Zealand in 2016 in Indore.
On Saturday, he was further fined three demerit points which when added to his earlier three points resulted in the ban.
If India are to go with two spinners in the third test as well, then the young Kuldeep Yadav might get to play his first Test match outside India.