Lanka keep India waiting

Mendis, Karunaratne lead hosts' fightback in second innings

Offence is the best form of defence and Sri Lanka, after a familiar batting debacle in the first innings, displayed rare spunk and spine in the second innings to keep India waiting for a potential series-clinching win.

Upul Tharanga’s second cheap dismissal in the match suggested an early finish to the second Test here at the SSC Ground on Saturday’s middle day, but Dimuth Karunaratne (92 batting, 238m, 200b, 12x4) and Kusal Mendis (110, 212m, 135b, 17x4) defied the Indian attack and belied popular expectations of another collapse with the biggest partnership of the series for the hosts. Worth 191 in 213 balls, the partnership ended with the dismissal of Mendis nearing stumps. The long and productive second-wicket stand notwithstanding, Sri Lanka are far from being safe thanks to their abject surrender in the first innings.

Overnight 50/2 and 572 runs behind India’s first-innings total of 622/9 declared, Lanka showed little character and clarity of thought in their approach. With R Ashwin (5/69) adding three more wickets to his previous day’s figures, the Lankan innings folded for a modest 183 in 49.4 overs at the stroke of which lunch was taken. Lunch would have hardly felt appetising for the hosts who were promptly asked to follow-on by India. Lanka were 209 for two in 60 overs when stumps were drawn for the day, still trailing by 230 runs.

With two full days and two sessions left in the game, the Lankan batsmen needed to produce something special to delay the inevitable and Karunaratne and Mendis answered that call with innings of great determination and delightful strokes. They did survive several anxious moments, enjoyed a slice of luck in the shape of a grassed catch of Mendis on one and successfully got a caught-behind verdict against Karunaratne overturned through review. Yet, the manner in which they gritted out in the face of spin threat on a pitch that offered plenty for Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja — who became the fastest left-armer to 150 Test scalps — was exemplary. Of course it was a lot easier to negotiate the turn and bounce once the ball went soft but still to bat out time with the constant pressure of the score-board was definitely an onerous task.

Though the Indian spinners, who between them claimed seven victims in the first innings, managed prodigious turn and beat the outside edge of the bat countlessly, they couldn’t take a single wicket in the second. With the pitch slowing down and the ball getting soft, India will probably have to wait for the new ball to be effective again.

If only Lanka had shown similar fighting spirit in the first innings, things would have been far brighter for the home team. Barring some pockets of resistance through Niroshan Dickwella (51, 48b, 7x4, 1x6), Mendis and Angelo Mathews, Lankan batsmen displayed little application of the mind and technical nous required on that wicket. Skipper Dinesh Chandimal led the procession with an ill-advised sweep which went straight to square-leg in the fifth over of the day by Jadeja (2/84). Having got off to a desired start, India’s bowlers squeezed the life out of the Lankan innings with sustained pressure. Once Jadeja gave the opening, Umesh Yadav induced a false stroke from Mendis in the next over.

Dickwella and Mathews put up an attacking stand of 53 before Ashwin opened his day’s account with the scalp of the latter. Mathews’ flick was superbly taken inches off the ground by Pujara at leg-slip. Dhananjaya de Silva’s return to Test cricket couldn’t have been shorter, bowled off the first ball he faced by Jadeja. And while Dickwella scored some brisk runs against the run of play, it was too good to last long. His cheeky attempted scoop off Mohammad Shami had his woodwork rearranged. Four balls later the pacer cleaned up Rangana Herath before Ashwin claimed Nuwan Pradeep and Dilruwan Perera to complete his 26th five-wicket haul, overtaking Harbhajan Singh’s 25 such efforts.