India vs Sri Lanka, Game 1: Ashwin’s 6 wickets thumps ‘Lankan Tigers’

CricHD will stream the Sri Lanka vs. India First Test match live online at this site.

For Sri Lanka, skipper Angelo Mathews (64) was the highest scorer.

While the off-spinner kept things tight, he bowled a tad shorter than Ashwin and wasn’t able to get as much turn.

In the spotlight: A day out from the match, Kumar Sangakkara already smiles down from almost as many hoardings as the politicians contesting in the election, in under a week. The short ball was working well for the visitors. When he got the opportunity, he looked good at the crease. SL 15 for 0.

India made a poor start after tea as Rahul (7) and Rohit Sharma (9) were both removed lbw by Dhammika Prasad (1-22) and Mathews (1-12) respectively. Kaushal Silva, who stroked a confident 83 in the warm-up game against India, has come out with Dimuth Karunaratne.

Mohammed Azharuddin’s 1993 tourists are the only Indian side to win a Test series in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka, all out for 183 in their first innings, had a few half chances in the morning session but otherwise failed to trouble the batsmen on the slow pitch at the Galle global Stadium. India were asked to bowl first and they responded brilliantly bowling out the Sri Lankans for 183.

A 2-1 victory would see India gain three points.

The team management has also backed Kohli’s five bowler strategy to get 20 wickets but that all depends on the weather conditions.

Vijay’s unavailability means a straightforward selection for the opening pair with Shikhar Dhawan and Lokesh Rahul set to take up the responsibility. Kohli’s scores of 8 and 18 in the practice match left a lot to be desired.

“We want some of the lower order batsmen to take up more responsibility and the top six obviously to get the bulk of the runs”.

Ishant and Aaron started proceedings only after a brief delay with the sightscreen. His wide range choice might be to stay with 5 bowlers in his lineup, as was fielded towards Bangladesh, having tasked the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harbhajan Singh to offer extra with the bat.

When asked as to why he would not be playing all the three Tests against India, Sangakkara said that he had already discussed the issue with the country’s cricket bosses and the arrangement was to play two Tests before retiring after he was persuaded to continue at the completion of 2015 World Cup.

Jehan Mubarak (0) was Ashwin’s third victim as Mathews (26 not out) and Dinesh Chandimal (5 not out) hung on till lunch.

It will leave Dhammika Prasad to lead the attack, with uncapped Vishwa Fernando coming into the equation.