Welcome to Sportstar 's LIVE coverage of Day 3 of the first Test between India and Sri Lanka in Mohali.
Ashwin gets the final wicket. Lahiru Kumara holes out at mid off. India wraps up a win inside three days.
GONE! Shami traps Fernando in front. The batsman reviews but it is three reds. India one wicket away now.
GONE! Jadeja grabs his ninth in the match as Rishabh Pant holds on to a healthy edge from Lasith Embuldeniya. Sri Lanka have lost eight. One wicket away from becoming be the first man to have scored 150 or more in an innings and take 10 wickets in the same match. Vishwa Fernando is in at No. 10.
SL 121/7 in 37 overs: In the first over after tea, Ashwin draws the outside edge from Charith Asalanka, which hits Pant's thigh and goes to Virat Kohli at first slip. That's wicket No. 435. He has gone past Kapil Dev! Shortly after, Jadeja traps Mathews in front. Given out but Mathews reviews. It's three reds and India inch closer to a massive win. Two balls later, Lakmal holes out. The end is nigh.
TEA BREAK: Asalanka gets stuck into Jadeja in the last over before tea. He collects two sixes and two fours, 20 off it. That's tea. SL 120/4, still trailing by 280 runs.
GONE! Jadeja strikes for the first time in this innings; he breaks the stand. Dhananjaya is caught by Iyer at extra cover. Charith Asalanka is the new man in. Charith Asalanka is the new batter.
SL 85/3 in 29 Overs: Jadeja and Bumrah in tandem now. Dhananjaya and Mathews have been untroubled thus far. de Silva flicked Jadeja through midwicket for four. Meanwhile, Bumrah bowled a beauty to Angelo Mathews, length ball around off that moves away to beat the bat.
SL 73/3 in 24 Overs: India in the driver's seat. They wouldn't mind the odd boundaries. Shami has been brilliant with his lines. He bowled in tandem with Jayant before being taken off the attack. Bumrah replaces him, into the attack for the first time this innings. Dhananjaya and Mathews are at the crease. SL still trail by 327 runs.
SL 61/3 in 19 Overs: Shami replaces Jayant Yadav and strikes! Dimuth Karunaratne has been caught behind, very good grab by Pant. Shami bowls a full length ball,angling into the stumps, but the ball straightens after pitching and takes the edge. Sri Lanka 45 for 3. Dhananjaya de Silva is the new man in. Meanwhile, a change of ends for Jayant, who is back for another burst.
SL 41/2 in 14 Overs: Ashwin and Jayant Yadav continue to bowl in tandem. Karunaratne and Mathews have looked in control thus far, Karunaratne rocked back to cut an Ashwin short ball for four.
SL 28/2 in 9 Overs: GONE! Ashwin has moved level with Kapil Dev to become joint second-highest wicket-taker in Tests. He has Nissanka caught behind. Given not out initially but Rohit reviewed and Snicko revealed a feather of an outside edge. In comes Angelo Mathews.
- LUNCH BREAK - SL 10/1, following on.
GONE! Ashwin has struck early; Thirimanne pushes forward to defend but the ball spins away, takes the edge and goes to Rohit, who takes a sharp, low catch at second slip. India nine wickets away from an innings win. Nissanka is in the middle. Jadeja into the attack. He was on a hat-trick but Nissanka keeps out the first over. That's lunch.
The Sri Lanka openers are in. Ashwin to open the bowling. Lahiru Thirimanne and Dimuth Karunaratne are at the crease.
Ravindra Jadeja 13-4-41-5 as Sri Lanka folds for 174. India have a lead of 400. SL lost last six wickets for just 13 runs. India have enforced the follow-on.
- BREAK -
GONE! Shami replaces Jayant Yadav after one over and strikes straightaway. Embuldeniya holes out. Two full balls followed by a bouncer. Vishwa Fernando is the new man in. Ravindra Jadeja gets Fernando caught at slip. That's wicket No. 4 for Jadeja. Lahiru Kumara limps to the middle. He is clean bowled first ball. That's the five-for for Jadeja. Jadeja will be on a hat-trick in the second innings. Sri Lanka trail by 400 runs.
SL 173/7 in 63 Overs: GONE! Jadeja replaces Ashwin and strikes early. Dickwella falls for two! Kudos to Rohit Sharma for his field placements. He set the trap for Dickwella, keeping two fielders for the sweep. They were both halfway to the boundary. Dickwella mistimes a sweep and gets caught! Lakmal is the new man in. He perishes off just his second ball. Tries to take on Jadeja, instead gifts him a wicket , caught by Ashwin at mid-off. Embuldeniya is the new man in.
SL 161/5 in 58 Overs: GONE! Excellent review from India. Asalanka has been adjudged lbw off Bumrah. It was a slower offcutter, that straightened and beat Asalanka's flick. Not given out initially but after a brief consultation, Rohit reviews and gets the reward. Earlier, Nissanka brought up his 50 with a single off Ashwin. A very proactive innings. In the previous over, he got a boundary to the left of point off the bowling of Bumrah. Asalanka then got stuck into Ashwin, sweeping him firmly for a couple of fours to also bring up the 50-run stand with Nissanka.
SL 140/4 in 53 Overs: Ashwin tested the defences of Asalanka and Nissanka with some lovely loop and dip outside off. Asalanka got a boundary off a thick edge. In Ashwin's next over, Nissanka sweeps one to the left of backward square for four before finding the gap between mid-on and short midwicket for four more. Bumrah replaces Shami, who has gone off the field for a bit. Bumrah bowls one short and wide, Nissanka cuts to collect four more.
SL 120/4 in 48 Overs: Shami began the day's play, from round the wicket to Charith Asalanka. He overstepped first ball. Asalanka pushes the fourth ball in the gap between backward point and mid-off for the first single of the day. In his next over, Shami dropped a little short outside off, and Asalanka pulled it away for the first boundary of the morning. Meanwhile, Nissanka got a reprieve when Shreyas Iyer grassed a tough chance in the deep off R. Ashwin's bowling.
Stay tuned! The live coverage of the match begins at 9.30AM IST.
DAY 2 REPORT
Ravindra Jadeja enjoyed one of the finest days of his Test career to help consolidate India’s advantage on a one-sided day two at the PCA stadium here. He smashed a career best 175 not out (228b, 17x4, 3x6) – first grafting then slogging merrily after lunch – before getting rid of opener Dimuth Karunaratne with a sharply-turning delivery in the post-tea session as Sri Lanka struggled to hang on in the contest and faced an uphill climb ahead.
The odds of a befitting first-innings reply to India’s 574 for 8 declared dimmed half an hour before close of play, when Angelo Mathews was dismissed leg-before-wicket by Jasprit Bumrah. He was perhaps a little unlucky to be given out. The ball was short of a good length and hit him high on the thigh pad; the on-field umpire had given it out, however, and the verdict couldn’t be reversed. A huge blow had been struck. And one more - the fourth - had fallen by stumps, R. Ashwin removing Dhananjaya de Silva with a sharp off-spinner, the ball hitting the batter’s left pad as he tried to play a slog-sweep.
On the field, Sri Lanka endured phases of absolute mayhem against spin, and so its top-order batters weren’t averse to using their feet for big hits against the Jadeja, Ashwin, and Jayant Yadav. Karunaratne hit Jayant, perhaps the least threatening of the three spinners, for back-to-back boundaries in the 14th over, and Ashwin was hit, too, on occasion, by both Karunaratne and the No. 3, Pathum Nissanka. Mathews, on the other hand, was content to target Jadeja, his nemesis – Mathews has got out six times to Jadeja in his career – but only to those deliveries sitting up for him to slog.
Cautious start to the day
The day was set up by Jadeja as he laid anchor for a considerable period in the morning, playing sedately alongside Ashwin (61, 82b, 8x4). That there was another treat in store later – Rishabh Pant had given a spectacular exhibition on day one – wasn’t clear. Some of Ashwin’s strokes for boundaries were a treat to watch, especially two straight drives: the first one was off a good length delivery from Fernando in the 101st over, and the other was off a full delivery from Embuldeniya which was converted into a full toss by the batter as he came down the pitch.
The pitch was flat and dry, and the reverse-swing, if obtained, wasn’t causing difficulties. It didn’t help that Lahiru Kumara, who left the field during his 11th over on day one, couldn’t take the field due to a hamstring tear.
All attention was on Jadeja as he moved to 97 with a cover-drive off Embuldeniya, taking toll of a delivery slightly overpitched. Soon after, he moved to 99 with a pull off Lakmal, who decided to test the batters out with the short balls for that over. With Ashwin also in the mood to go for his strokes, the bait worked, Ashwin moving to 61 with a fierce pull to midwicket before nicking a shorter, faster delivery behind.
Boundaries galore
Jadeja had thus far played judiciously, using his feet well to mainly collect his boundaries via cuts and pulls. He brought out his atypical celebration upon reaching his century, twirling the bat in his left hand as if playing with a sword, and decided to shift gears, just as Pant had done after he had reached his half-century on day one.
The post-lunch session was haze of boundaries and sixes as Jadeja went after Fernando, Ebuldeniya and Dhananjaya. Exacerbating Sri Lanka’s agony was also a faux pas on the field amid all the boundary hitting – Fernando fumbled the ball as he attempted to run Jadeja out in the non-strikers’ end after a mix-up between the batters, and by the time he realised he had to relay the ball to the other end quickly, it was too late, the wicketkeeper spreading his arms in agony. The dismissal of Jayant Yadav – he edged to the slips a delivery from Fernando going across with the angle from over the wicket – was a minor aberration.
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Jadeja teed off in the 121st over, collecting 15 runs in that over by Embuldeniya (including 14 off three deliveries), en route bringing up India’s 500. He skipped down the pitch for a six down the ground, cleared his front leg to slog the next ball for four, and then steered a short delivery towards deep backward square leg. Soon after, he pulled a short one from Dhananjaya to midwicket for four, before slogging hard to long-off for his second six, bringing up his 150 with panache.
Mohammed Shami (20 n.o., 34b, 3x4), who hadn’t contributed much to the partnership till then, joined in the fun, driving and cutting for boundaries. And when Jadeja stepped down once again to hit Embuldeniya for six, he had registered the highest score by a No. 7 batter for India. The 100 partnership was up, too, off just 91 deliveries. With 574 on the board, Rohit Sharma decided it was enough. It was the team’s first 500-plus score since October, 2019.
- Abhishek Mukherjee
PLAYING 11
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lahiru Thirimanne, Pathum Nissanka, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Lahiru Kumara, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando
TOSS
India opts to bat
TEAMS (from)
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hanuma Vihari, S. Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Saurabh Kumar, Jayant Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Dhananjaya de Silva (vc), Angelo Mathews, Charith Asalanka, Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Praveen Jayawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Lahiru Kumara, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera, Jeffrey Vandersay.
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