India’s Greatness In Cricket Continues

India’s biggest test match victory 

Source: The Times of India

India beat Sri Lanka in the second test match at Nagpur. The winning margin equaled the record of the largest win of an inning and 239 runs. This epic win came after an unfortunate draw at Eden Gardens where the rain occupied the most of the playing time.

Source: Cricinfo

This test match observed Ashwin’s 300^th scalp, which made him fastest to reach the milestone ahead of Dennis Lillee. The match also saw the 5^th double century of Virat Kohli, the termination of century drought of Rohit Sharma, who scored the ton after 3 years and centuries of Murli Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Source: The Indian Express

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first. The pitch was green, ideal for fast bowling and for the preparation for the tour of South Africa. Sri Lanka bowled out after scoring 205 runs. Ashwin took 4 wickets and Jadeja and Ishant took the rest equally. The only Sri Lankan batsmen who were able to withstand the storm were Chandimal and Karunaratne, who scored resilient 50s. The beginning of the Indian innings saw some hiccups as opener KL Rahul got out cheaply.

Source: The Hindu

The second day was owned by Cheteshwar Pujara and Murli Vijay’s stand. They also became the second most prolific second-wicket pair for India. Vijay made his 10^th ton whereas Pujara completed his 14^th. After the dismissal of Vijay, Kohli came to bat and scored some quick runs in order to elevate the run rate and take advantage of drained Sri Lankan Bowlers.

2 Source: The Hindu

Kohli made his 5^th double century on the third day as India declared the inning after posting the mammoth total of 610/6. The day also saw ‘the Hitman’, Rohit Sharma, finding some runs in Tests as he scored a brilliant hundred. His hundred concluded the Indian inning. The fatigue of spending 176 overs on field could easily be seen on Islanders’ face. Their shoulders dropped while they were fielding and their judgement became the worse while batting. Their opener, Samarawickrama, fell cheaply after facing just 2 balls. Sri Lanka then had to bat for almost 2 days to draw the match.

Sri Lanka’s downward slide continued into the first session of the fourth day as they gift-wrapped two wickets to India. They were reduced to 8 wickets by the lunch time. The 9^th wicket showed some resistance as Chndimal and Lakmal scored 58 runs together as the last effort to save some grace. Chandimal got out on 61 by Umesh Yadav. Only one run was added to the total when an Ashwin carrom ball kissed Lahiru Gamage’s off stump, giving India its biggest victory.

India has taken an unassailable lead of 1-0 in the series. This was Kohli’s 20^th win as Captain and is now third successful captain, after Ganguly and Dhoni. The test match seemed more like a Warm-up match than a Test match between two nations. Sri Lanka surrendered too easily on the wicket which was prepared to keep in mind the South African pitches. Let’ see if Sri Lanka can provide some competition to the Indian juggernaut.