With 446 runs behind at close of play on day two, Sri Lanka are looking at a certain innings defeat against India in Galle.
Sri Lanka living on the edge after India 600
Sri Lanka have put themselves in grave danger of an innings defeat after Indian bowlers removed…
The only silver lining in Sri Lanka’s dark cloud has been Nuwan Pradeep’s bowling performance after India posted a commanding 600 runs on the board. Sri Lanka’s all top four bowlers conceded over 130 runs, which is only the 4th instance in history.
Pradeep had never taken a five-wicket haul in 46 innings, 24 matches until today after debuting in 2011. After claiming all the three wickets on day one, he ended with 6 for 132.
“Though I didn’t start well, I thought I got better as I kept bowling. I got some rhythm. I’ve taken four wickets six or seven times. This is my first five-wicket haul and I’m very happy that I could get it.“ Pradeep stated to the media.
Out of all 6 Pradeep’s wickets, two wickets were courtesy well-directed bouncers. Yesterday on day one, Virat Kohli who he termed as ‘one of the best batsmen in the world’ was snapped up early and today, Ravichandran Ashwin was also dismissed through a short-delivery. Though Pradeep had always bowled the bouncer, he has recently been accurate with it being a wicket-taking option, ” I trained like normal with the bouncer. With the way, the wicket was today, the bouncer became effective.” He further said.
Despite taking the final 7 Indian wickets for 177 runs on day two to limit the visitors to 600, Pradeep was not quite happy with the team’s performance which they dished out in the last two days, “No, we can’t be happy. A lot of our plans went badly. We had to go to new plans but they didn’t always work as well. But cricket is like that, you must stick at it. At least we could get them for 600.“ Pradeep who is a man without many words mentioned.
Asela Gunaratne will not come out to bat and the hosts literally have only 4 wickets to score 247 runs to avoid follow-on. The pair at the crease overnight, Angelo Mathews who looks at home after scoring his 27th half-century with Dilruwan Perera who is no mug with the bat will be the only hope for the home team.
Sri Lanka’s newly appointed fast bowling coach Chaminda Vaas commented on Sri Lanka’s performance and the plans for day three, “If any side gets 600 there is pressure on the opposition team’s batsmen. But even so, we didn’t bat well. Some batsmen got out early. That’s something that a team can’t tolerate – but that’s the nature of the game. At the moment, Angelo Mathews and Dilruwan Perera are batting well, so tomorrow hopefully they will stay at the wicket and bat well until lunch. If we can bat until tea, we might be able to escape danger. That’s what we should aim to do – to bat well in the first two hours.”
