Bangalore. After Shreyas Iyer’s big half-century on a pitch difficult to bat, Sri Lanka kept their upper hand on the first day of the second day of day-night cricket at 86 for six after Jasprit Bumrah’s sharp bowling bowled 252 for India. 16 wickets fell on the first day of the match, which is a new record for most wickets in a day in a day-night Test. While the Indian batsmen were troubled by the turn and uneven bounce of the Sri Lankan spinners, the visiting team’s batsmen were troubled by the fast bowlers of the host team. The pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah (3 for 15) and Mohammed Shami (2 for 18) kept the visiting team’s troubles intact on the current tour, while left-arm spinner Axar Patel (21 for one) also made a comeback. Took a wicket.
At the end of the day’s play, Niroshan Dickwella was playing on 13 while Lasith Ambuldeniya is yet to open the account. Sri Lanka’s team is still trailing by 166 runs with only four wickets left. Sri Lanka’s situation would have been worse but Bumrah’s appeal for leg before against Ambuldeniya in the final over of the day did not take the DRS and replays showed the ball hitting the leg-stump. Earlier, Iyer played an excellent innings of 92 runs in 98 balls with 10 fours and four sixes. Rishabh Pant (39) and Hanuma Vihari (31) also played useful innings. Left-arm spinners Praveen Jayavikram (3 for 81) and Ambuldeniya (3 for 94) apart from off-spinner Dhananjay de Silva (2 for 32) troubled the Indian batsmen. Innings of the host team 59. Got it in 1 over. The Sri Lankan bowlers also bowled directionlessly in the middle and the fielders also dropped catches. After India, Sri Lanka had a poor start too.
The team lost the wicket of Kusal Mendis (02) in the third over itself, who was caught low by Iyer at third slip. Lahiru Thirimanne (08) hit Bumrah for two consecutive fours but the pacer was caught at slip in the next over by Iyer. Shami bowled Dimuth Karunaratne (04) on his very first ball and then lbw de Silva (10) to make Sri Lanka 28 for four. Angelo Mathews (43) tried to ease the pressure on Shami with two fours and then welcomed Akshar with a six but the spinner gave Sri Lanka the fifth blow by getting Asalanka caught by Ravichandran Ashwin. Mathews and Dickwella tried to handle the innings by adding 35 runs for the sixth wicket but Bumrah returned to the bowling and got Mathews caught at slip by skipper Rohit Sharma. Earlier, there was no grass at all on the pitch of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and India
India did not start well. The team lost the wickets of both the openers Mayank Agarwal (04) and Rohit (15) till 29 runs. Fast bowler Vishwa Fernando made a credible appeal for leg before against Agarwal but the umpire did not give out. Agarwal then ran for a run but Rohit returned after taking two steps forward and Agarwal was run out. This ball also turned out to be a noball. Ambuldeniya caught Rohit at the hands of de Silva at second slip. Vihari was given leg before by the umpire off Jayavikram’s delivery but he survived after taking the DRS. However, without increasing his score, he was caught by the wicketkeeper on the ball of the same spinner. Virat Kohli (23)’s wait for more than two years for a Test century continued and he was leg-before completely missing a low delivery from de Silva. Suranga Lakmal drops Pant’s catch near the boundary. He was playing at this time scoring four runs.
After tea, Pant took India’s score past 100 runs with two fours in de Silva’s over. Sri Lanka captain Karunaratne then once again handed the ball to Ambuldeniya who gave India the fifth blow by bowling the dangerous looking Pant. Pant scored 39 runs in just 26 balls with the help of seven fours. Ravindra Jadeja too, after scoring just four runs, gave an easy catch to Thirimanne at slip off Ambuldeniya’s bounce and turn taking ball. Iyer meanwhile batted with confidence. He hit three fours on Ambuldeniya, who was bowling excellently. Iyer and Ashwin (13) put on 35 runs for the seventh wicket, after which de Silva broke the partnership by getting Ashwin caught by the wicketkeeper. Iyer completed his half-century in just 54 balls with two sixes on de Silva, while Axar also hit a six on Ambuldeniya on his third ball, the team’s score crossed 200 runs in the 49th over.
Iyer was lucky in the same over of Ambuldeniya when Asalanka dropped his catch at midwicket and he took advantage of it and hit a four on the next ball. Axar (09) returned to the pavilion after playing the ball of fast bowler Lakmal (one wicket for 12 runs), playing his last international match. Shami (05) got life in the slips as soon as he came off Ambuldeniya’s ball but he waved Jayavikram’s ball in the air and caught it to de Silva. Iyer’s personal score of 82 runs was caught by Kusal Mendis on the boundary off Jayavikram. Iyer hit a six off Ambuldeniya but was stumped trying to play a big shot off Jayavikram, which ended the Indian innings.
