Sri Lanka suffered their biggest defeat in terms of runs in Test cricket on Saturday as India recorded a resounding 304-run win in Galle.
India massacre Sri Lanka in Galle
India defeated Sri Lanka convincingly by 304 runs in the first Test match at Galle
Sri Lanka was completely outplayed by India in all three formats, fielding, batting and bowling. After a 4-day Test match, the hosts are without a match-winner in Asela Gunaratne, their lead spinner Rangana Herath is doubtful due to a finger injury and the recently-appointed Test skipper Dinesh Chandimal is still recovering from Pneumonia sickness before the next match which starts on Thursday in Colombo
“We had an x-ray yesterday on my finger, it doesn’t show any fracture. Three years ago, I had a fracture in the same area and that’s the reason there’s a bit of swelling and soreness. Hopefully over the next few days it will get better. Regarding Chandimal, there’s no confirmation yet, but I expect him to play the next game.” Herath gave insights on the current injuries.
Watch – Sri Lanka will have to step up before the next game – Cricketry: Day 4
Shikhar Dhawan was supposed to go to Melbourne but instead came in as a replacement for Murali Vijay and won the man-of-the-match award scoring a terrific 190 off 168 balls, “At that point, we had a few plans for him but we failed to execute. If you take for example, we allowed him too much of width. In the first session of the match itself the game started slipping away from us. But we bounced back well but he had by then got off to a terrific start.” Herath shared his views on Dhawan’s exceptional knock.
304 run margin is the biggest victory for India in away Tests. They were brilliant on the field, and their seamers gave early breakthroughs, their spinners found a lot of bite from a surface which was unresponsive to the home team’s lackluster bowling attack and three visiting batsmen scored centuries to lay the foundation.
“There are still some areas that we want to look back and try to improve upon; especially when you get four-five wickets and not letting the lower order to get away with the few runs in the latter half of the innings. But all in all, I think, playing Test cricket – February is the last when we last played Test cricket – and from then having played so much one-day cricket and not having the time to prepare so much in between, I think from that point of view it was good to get back into the groove and do things that are supposed to be done to win a Test match. From that point of view, I feel we had a pretty good game.” Indian skipper Virat Kohli who scored his 17th Test century told after the match.
Beside the negatives, there are few positives for Sri Lanka to take forward from Galle. Dilruwan Perera stood out as a batsman in both innings, especially in the first innings scoring 92* while Dimuth Karunarathne played a fighting 97 in the final innings but the biggest plus point was Nuwan Pradeep’s bowling performance in the first innings taking 6 for 132.
“We all know he (Dimuth Karunaratne) is a very good player, he’s proven himself before at this level and he’s got a good sound game for this format. He’s someone who is very solid at the top of the order for Sri Lanka. Also, I think Nuwan Pradeep bowled well in the first innings. He was the one guy that looked like picking up a wicket every spell that he came back for. He hit some good areas as well. That for me was also very good to see and challenging to face as well. All the guys who faced him felt like probably he’s going to make something happen with the ball. I think these two guys from the opposition stood out.” Kohli stated.
All in all, Sri Lanka must go back to the drawing board and prepare for the challenges ahead because the visitors have set their standards high. The hosts should fight hard and strong at SSC grounds from 3rd August.
“We are a better team than this. We certainly are. I felt that it was after a long time a team score 600 runs against us. We should have bowled better. The other point is most of our batsmen got closer to three figures and got out, but whereas the Indian batters made big hundreds. That was a big difference too in the game. That’s an area that we need to work on moving forward” Herath said.
