Ravichandran Ashwin throttled the entire Sri Lankan batting line-up while bowling in the first innings. He took a fifer which was his 26th 5-wicket haul in Test cricket. Ashwin conceded 69 runs in 16.4 overs and dismissed both the openers Dimuth Karunaratne, Upul Tharanga, Angelo Mathews, Dilruwan Perera, Niroshan Dickwella and Nuwan Pradeep. The home side was dismissed within 183 runs and the follow on was enforced.
In the second innings, Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis provided some stability to the team by scoring hundreds while following on. However, on day 4, Ashwin’s spin delivery bamboozled Malinda Pushpakumara who came in to bat at number 4 as a night watchman at the end of day 3.
In the 73rd over, Ashwin bowled to Pushpakumara and the way he got out is quite difficult to explain. It could be termed as another ‘brain fade’ incident against Indian team in Tests. Pushpakumara reversed his stance and was probably going for a reverse sweep. As soon as the ball hit the ground and turned, he thought to go for a lofted shot but completely missed it and the ball hit the stumps. No one probably has understood what he was thinking about or how he wanted to play the shot. It was one of the weird dismissals in this game so far.
— Cricvids (@Cricvids1) August 6, 2017
Did you watch that? It’s hard to explain that attempt in proper cricketing terminology. Let’s see it in slow motion again!
— Cricvids (@Cricvids1) August 6, 2017
Well, Ashwin got the much-needed breakthrough in the first session. Pushpakumara was out for 16 off 58 balls. However, the Lankans are very much back in the game are moving ahead strongly. Indian skipper Virat Kohli enforced the follow on but this time the home team took it maturely and are replying in a better way.
By the end of the first session, Sri Lanka scored 302 runs after losing 4 wickets. Opener Dimuth Karunaratne is playing at 136 and with him, Angelo Mathews is playing at 28. They are still trailing by 137 runs.
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