Colombo: You don’t need empirical evidence to prove that there is a certain wisdom behind playing five specialist bowlers. Especially in conditions that demand long spells and skills that only genuine bowlers can fulfill.
Batting all-rounders, therefore, aren’t counted here. That’s one of the major reasons why India have been the dominant side in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka.
After another day of interruption by rain, bad light and exchange of words between players from either side, Lanka, overnight 8/2 in reply to India’s 503/9 declared, were 265/8 in their first innings, trailing India by 238 runs on Tuesday.
Sonal Dinusha (85 n.o., 137b, 6×4, 2×6) and a determined Lahiru Kumar (8, 50b, 1×4) managed to keep the Indians at bay with a defiant unbroken stand of 35 runs which has lasted 65 minutes now.
Coming back to five-bowler strategy, where Sri Lanka have banked on a few batting all-rounders to do the fifth bowler’s job in an effort to bolster their batting, India have fielded five bowlers in both Tests while trusting the top-6 batters to post enough runs on the board. On pitches, where batters can flourish if they show intent as displayed by some Lankans themselves, the fifth bowler becomes crucial.
In both Tests, Lanka have had one of their four bowlers have an off day, forcing the other three to take a major load which isn’t easy in these hot and humid conditions. As a bowler gets tired, it becomes hard for him to operate at optimum level. As Kuldeep Yadav endured a difficult first Test, India still had four others to bowl in the best physical shape possible here. In Colombo, on the third day of the second Test at SSC, debutant Saransh Jain, who bowled 18 wicketless overs for 51 runs, endured a difficult initiation, but India weren’t short of options.
Pacers Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj and left-arm spin duo of Manav Suthar and Ravindra Jadeja all got amongst wickets as India gained ascendancy.
Prasidh (3/47) was particularly impressive working up good speeds and troubling the Lankan batters with short-pitched deliveries. He got rid of debutant Kamil Mishara for the first breakthrough of the day with a perfume ball that the left-hander could only glove behind to Dhruv Jurel, who kept wickets with Rishabh Pant nursing the bruises on his shoulder with an ice pack. His further participation, if required at all, in the game remains a doubt.
The hard-working pacer found success again in his return spell when he separated the growing stand between Pasindu Sooriyabandara (80, 133b, 9×4) and Kamindi Mendis (32) with another short ball although with some luck. Mendis’ eyes lit up when the ball arrived at a pullable height, but hit it straight to Jadeja at mid-wicket. That ended an 87-run stand for the fourth wicket as teams broke for lunch with Lanka at 130/4.
Even as the talented Dinusha continued to stack up runs, India struck thrice through their Suthar (3/83) and Jadeja (1/45).
Suthar elicited an edge off Dhananjaya de Silva as the Lankan skipper tried to defend. K L Rahul completed the catch on a second attempt.
Jadeja finally found the success, with some luck, when he had a well-set Sooriyabandara play onto the stumps. Niroshan Dickwella lasted all of three balls, edging an innocuous short ball from Siraj behind the wicket while attempting an ill-timed pull. From 122/3 just before lunch, Lanka had lost four wickets for the addition of 51 runs before the tail once again frustrated India.
With Dinusha looking unshakeable at one end, Keshara Nuwantha (18, 74b) and then Lahiru showed the wicket was still good enough to bat despite signs of turn and uneven bounce.