Jadeja is also the third left-arm spinner after Rangana Herath of Sri Lanka (433 wickets) and Vettori (362 wickets) to go part the 350-wicket mark in Tests. But Nuwantha would could himself unlucky to be dismissed as his hard drive off Jadeja when off Yashasvi Jaiswal’s thigh off the rebound with Indian skipper Shubman Gill taking an easy catch off the rebound.
WATCH Ravindra Jadeja complete his 350 wickets in Test cricket HERE…
It was Jadeja’s second wicket of Day 3. He had opened his account with the dismissal of Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva in the first session. Jadeja got De Silva to edge to first slip where KL Rahul took a sharp catch.
The Indian all-rounder went to 351 Test wickets when he got the wicket of Lankan centurion Sonal Dinusha for an even hundred. Dinusha was trapped in front by Jadeja to be dismissed for 100 off 168 balls with 2 sixes and 4 fours.
Earlier, Niroshan Dickwella and Dinusha’s resolute 146-run partnership revived the Lankan innings after the home team were reduced to 90 for 5 in the first session in reply to India’s 462 in the first innings. Indian pacer Prasidh Krishna ended the partnership, getting a thin edge off Dickwella, whose long wait for a maiden Test ton will continue as he departed for 80 off 115 balls with 7 fours.
Meanwhile, Jadeja is the 5th Indian cricketer after Anil Kumble (619), Ravichandran Ashwin (537), Kapil Dev (434) and Harbhajan Singh (417) to claim 350 wickets or more in Test cricket. Of all the left-arm spinners in Test cricket with more than 125 Test cricket, only South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj has a better strike-rate – 56.4 – than Jadeja’s 58.1. He ended the innings with figures of 3/57 in 21 overs.
At the other end, the other left-arm spinner Manav Suthar ended up with 4/76 – including a wicket off the first ball in the Test match. Suthar dismissed Lahiru Udara, Dinesh Chandimal, Prabath Jayasuriya and Lahiru Kumara as Lankans were bowled out for 284 to concede a first innings lead of 178 runs.