If it was Rishabh Pant who outclassed everyone yesterday, it was Ravindra Jadeja who stamped his authority today. The all-rounder attained his career-best score of 175 runs and remained not out till the innings’ end. As the fans were enjoying Jadeja’s masterclass, Rohit’s untimely declaration took everyone by a surprise. Had Jadeja got a handful of overs more to bat, he would have achieved his first international double hundred. As things stand, India are far ahead of the Sri Lankans in this test match. Here we have brought you the complete report of Day 2 of the India vs Sri Lanka 1st test match in Mohali.
India vs Sri Lanka 1st Test match, Day 2
Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran picked up the innings’ tempo from where they left it yesterday. Before Ashwin(61) was caught off Lakmal, he has already stitched a 130 runs partnership with Jadeja. After Ashwin’s dismissal, Jayant joined Jadeja on the pitch but he could not survive for long. Vishwa Fernando accounted for his wicket as Jayant(2) edged the ball to the first slip.
A ray of hope was clearly visible for the Sri Lankans as they had now entered the Indian lower order. But Mohammed Shami accompanied Jadeja well as the two added up more than 100 runs together. Shami contributed just 20 runs in those 109 runs as Jadeja exploited the helpless bowlers from the other end. The Sri Lankan bowlers and fielders just looked hopeless and helpless as they waited for Rohit to declare the innings. India were 574/8 when Rohit Sharma declared the Indian innings.
Jadeja’s exorbitant innings broke several records today. Here is the list of records that were broken today:
- Jadeja became the first player batting at number 7 or below to be involved in three or more hundred-plus partnerships.
- This Indian innings became only the third instance ever when three 100+ partnerships were built after the fall of the 5th wicket.
- Jadeja is now the fifth Indian to be a part of three 100+ partnerships in an innings after Vinod Kambli, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, and Karun Nair.
Sri Lanka’s misery continues
Lakmal, Fernando, and Embuldeniya took two wickets each but none of them looked effective. The body language of the fielders early in the day indicated that they are already waiting for declaration.
The Sri Lankan openers had a very good opening partnership as SL lost no wicket till the 18th over. But in the 19th over, Lahiru Thirimanne(17) was sent back to the pavilion by Ashwin. So at 48, SL suffered their first blow. Then came Pathum Nissanka, who’s still out there batting cautiously. After his heroics with the bat, Jadeja rocked with the ball as well. The left-arm spinner dismissed the Sri Lankan skipper, Dimuth Karunaratne, LBW at a score of 28 runs on just his second ball of the day. Since then, the wickets kept falling at regular intervals before the umpires called stumps. Angelo Matthews became Bumrah’s prey as he was dismissed for 22. Dhananjaya de Silva, too, could not do much as he was out LBW off Ashwin. De Silva was at a score of 1 when Ashwin sent him back to the pavilion.
Pathum Nissanka(26*) and Charith Asalanka(1*) will come out to bat for SL tomorrow as the team looks to bat enough to avoid a follow-on.
