India resumed Day 2 in a dominant position, with 399 for 3 at the end of the first day. Day 1 belonged to India thanks to a scintillating 190 off 168 balls by Shikhar Dhawan, who was making a comeback into the side. Day 2 started off rather poorly as Cheteshwar Pujara departed for 153 when the total was 423. Rahane was the next to depart in a span of nine runs, he scored 57. That is when Saha and Ashwin stitched together an important 53 run stand before Wriddhiman Saha fell for 16 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin once again showed his class with the bat, he scored a crisp 47 off 60 balls. His innings was laced with 7 fours. But it was Hardik Pandya who stole the show as an opener, he scored 50 off 49 balls. He had a quickfire 62-run partnership with Mohammad Shami, who also played a cameo off 30 runs helping the eventual total to 600, sharp!
The score of 600 looked good when Umesh Yadav struck in his first over, removing Karunaratne for 2. He was trapped leg before wicket. Upul Tharanga was the highest scorer he scored 64, but at the end of the day, Angelo Matthews was looking solid on 54 not out. Sri Lanka ended the day at 154 for 5. Shami was the pick of the bowlers he picked up 2 wickets, whereas Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav chipped in with one wicket a piece. Kusal Mendis disappointed again as he was out for a duck.
600 on the board in the first essay, up to the bowlers to back it up. SL 1st innings underway #TeamIndia #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/jPZ0yFL76G
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 27, 2017
India will start firm favourites on day 3 as the host’s trail by a whopping margin of 400+. Virat Kohli should look to get them bundled by lunch tomorrow.
Century no. 12 for @cheteshwar1. The willow work continues for the run-machine #TeamIndia #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/CWWX6R70C5
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 26, 2017
Ashwin contributed as he picked Dickwella for 8 runs. Virat Kohli will not like his boys to bat again. So his mindset would be to finish it off as early as possible and give an extra day’s rest to the bowlers as they need to remain fit for this long series.
