Sri Lanka were reduced to 86-6 by India at stumps on the first day of the second and final Test being played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday, after the hosts put on a strong total of 252 on a challenging pitch for the first-ever day night Test match between these two teams.
Indian fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami ran through the Sri Lankan top order after Shreyas Iyer hammered a quickfire 92 to lift India to 252, on a pitch that witnessed as many as 16 wickets falling on the first day itself. With Sri Lanka trailing by another 166 runs, a quick finish to the second and final Test can be expected given that the home team bowlers have been absolutely dominant against the visiting batsmen.
Sri Lankan spinners Lasith Embuldeniya and Praveen Jayawickrama were both impressive as they returned with 3/94 and 3/81 respectively after India decided to bat having won the toss earlier on Saturday afternoon. India captain Rohit Sharma was dismissed for 15, opening batsman Mayank Agarwal was embarrassingly run out for 4 while former captain Virat Kohli could not prevent a low delivery hitting him in front of the wickets, on the pads after he did well to make 23 from 48 balls.
India’s No 3 batsman Hanuma Vihari once again impressed with his disciplined the batting, scoring 31 from 81 balls with the help of 4 boundaries to provide a lot of strength from one end while wickets were falling in a hurry at the other.
After the likes of Rishabh Pant (39), Ravindra Jadeja (4) and Ravichandran Ashwin (13) perished without making any significant score, Iyer took it upon himself to take India ahead. Batting at No 5, the right-handed batsman I yer smashed 10 boundaries and 4 sixes to score 92 from 98 balls in a spectacular innings on a challenging surface.
In their reply, Sri Lanka were reduced to 14/2 after the first 5 overs with both Bumrah and Shami striking one each. Bumrah opened the account for India dismissing Kusal Mendis for 2 while Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne was cleaned up on the first ball that Shami bowled in the match. Lahiru Thirimanne, who was demoted to No 3, could not trouble the score as much as he was removed by Bumrah out of the equation, after the left-handed batsman hit a couple of boundaries to make a promising start.
Sri Lanka’s former captain and the most experienced batsmen Angelo Mathews fought hard for his 43 from 85 balls, studded with 3 boundaries and 2 sixes, but he was dismissed by Bumrah who bowled a superb slow delivery to have him caught in the slips. Dhananjaya de Silva was dismissed by Shami for 10 whereas Charith Asalanka once again perished looking to be over aggressive, caught by Ashwin off Akshar Patel for t.
At the end of the day’s play, Sri Lanka’s wicket-keeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella was batting on 13 in the company of Embuldeniya, who was yet to open his account.