India may not have got an independence day present but at Sri Lanka gave its double-ton-specialist batsman Kumar Sangakkara a flawless farewell with a thumping win in his final game. All the bowlers bowled their hearts out.
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To say that the Indians played badly would be a bit unfair as one has to give credit to the 37-year-old Herath for his skilful and persistent bowling performance.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who opened the bowling after taking six wickets in the first innings, bowled Dimuth Karunaratne with his fifth delivery before a run had been scored. We should have finished the game in that session.
Rangana Herath picked up a seven-wicket haul to complete an unbelievable turnaround for Sri Lanka as India capitulated to 112 on day four to lose the first Test in Galle by 63 runs.
“It’s clarity of thought that is required in a high pressure situations”. It’s just that you can have on and off days in Test matches and one-day cricket. He may be 37 but he keeps coming up with such match-winning spells. We were let down by our batting today. Herath and Kaushal stuck to overall tidy lines, but their lack of bite allowed Dhawan and Kohli to play with assurance.
His body language was terrific and he put in that extra effort, backed by very good catching close in, with Kaushal Silva at forward short leg backing him very well. I am not shocked.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo’s Sri Lanka correspondent.
As long as Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the captain, he did justice to his role as a batsman. He is a quality player and certainly has the ability to play like that.
The first session on Saturday morning will be crucial with both sides looking to assert themselves. In the meantime, Lankan pacers Dhammika Prasad, Nuwan Pradeep and skipper Angelo Mathews bowled 7 overs between them before spin was introduced. “He singlehandedly got us a fighting score”.
Mathews said the win was a great morale-booster for his young team for the rest of the series. The need of the hour was to take calculated risk when you are chasing a small total”, Kohli told reporters.”The intent has to be there which I think was lacking.
The wicket was pretty demanding and we knew it won’t be an easy target to chase. They had three spinners and the wicket was turning a lot, so we had to be aggressive.
“I feel my shot selection has got better and that’s why I am not getting out in the 20s and 30s now”, he said.
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Dhawan and Kohli sussed the situation beautifully, but what was even more impressive was how easily they eschewed their natural games and batted as the circumstances demanded. In the 20th over the day, he shaped up to reverse-sweep Kaushal, saw the ball was not there, looked for a regulation sweep, and in the end patted it back.
