India beats Sri Lanka by 304 runs

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli plays a shot during the fourth day’s play of the first test cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Galle, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 29, 2017. But Ashwin ended his wait for the first wicket in the second innings by inducing an edge from Dickwella and then cleaned up a well-settled Karunaratne, who was nearing a well-deserved century, to bring India on the brink of wrapping the Test on the penultimate day.

Despite it not being a memorable match for the Sri Lankan team, fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep impressed as he took career-best bowling figures of 6-132 in India’s first innings.

It needed a smart review from India to break the partnership as Mendis (36, 71b, 3×4) nicked one off Jadeja, with Angelo Mathews (2, 10b) then gifting his wicket away with a disgusting shot. An undeterred Virat Kohli too made full use of the opportunity by scoring his first half century in Tests after February.

Despite the selection of Pandya, India stuck with Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha at Nos.

Ashwin, who given a special award for playing 50th Test, uploaded a photo and captioned it as: “Memorable test, will cherish it forever”.

Eventually, both batsmen were out sweeping Ashwin.

The Lankan resistance ended for all- goal when the latter was bowled off Ashwin, dragging a sweep back onto his stumps. But the opener couldn’t make it count as he played on two balls later. The end came swiftly when Lahiru Kumara (0) skied off Ravindra Jadeja (3/71). In the first session of the match itself the game started slipping away from us. All he could do was chop the ball on to his stumps.

Of the 31 wickets to fall in this match 16 fell to seam bowlers – 10 of those breakthroughs shared between the two Sri Lanka quicks.

Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami took the top order apart even as Upul Tharanga hurtled along with a profusion of silken off-side boundaries. It was either a routine field placement or India had sussed out a tendency to flick in the air. Since then, the Saurashtra batsman hasn’t looked back. Extra bounce grabbed the shoulder of his jabbing defensive bat, and Mukund, diving right at silly point, took a superb, low one-hander. He can give them that breathing space and bowl a spell of a few overs.

Earlier, resuming the day at 189/3, India skipper Virat Kohli (103 not out) went on to complete his 17th Test century, before the visitors declared their innings at 240/3.

“I think the second innings required us to play a bit more positively and I am glad I was able to do that along with Abhinav Mukund”.