Ishant Sharma wrecked havoc today in the Sri Lanka Board President XI camp after the Indian-medium pacer bagged five wickets to reduce the hosts to 35 for five at lunch on Day 2 of the three-day tour game here.
Getting behind the Indians first innings score of 351, the President XI top-order had no answers to Ishant's (5-5) pace and swing on a humid day as the lanky bowler, who shared the new ball with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0-5), struck twice in his very first over. He removed both the openers, Dhananjaya de Silva and Kaushal Silva, for a duck.
Ishant kept up the good work by picking Upul Tharanga (0) in his next over and then got Lahiru Thiramanne (5) and Kusal Perera (0) on consecutive deliveries in his fourth over to be on a hat-trick. The score read 10 for five.
Shehan Jayasuriya, who is battling it out on 7 not out, averted the hat-trick ball and now shares an unbeaten 25-run partnership with Milinda Siriwardana (23 not out) to bring some respite from the wicket-fall. Earlier starting on their overnight score of 314 for six, the Virat Kohli-led Indians managed to post 351 all out with Ajinkya Rahane top-scoring with 109 retired out.
Medium-pacer Kasun Rajitha bagged two more wickets this morning to return with impressive figures of 5-68. Overnight batsman Ravichandran Ashwin stuck around for his 23-run stay before being scalped by Rajitha, and Harbhajan Singh (15) and Amit Mishra (0) followed him soon after.
Kohli's failure with the bat continued on the opening day after he was out for 8, while Lokesh Rahul (43), Shikhar Dhawan (62) and Cheteshwar Pujara (42) came up with useful contributions. The visitors could only survive 9.1 overs in the morning session after 79 overs were possible on Day 1.
The rules of a practice game are applicable in this match with a set of 15 players allowed per side, while only 11 can bat and field at a time.
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