Honours shared on day 2 of test amidst Sangakkara drama

The entire game paused for a few minutes as Kumar Sangakkara walked in – with the Indian players, led by Virat Kohli, and even umpires Bruce Oxenford and Rod Tucker lining up to form a guard of honour.  The great man was greeted at the crease by a quick inswinging Yorker by Yadav, which Sangakkara managed to dig out.

Sri Lanka began day needing 4 wickets to wrap up the Indian innings, on what was predicted to be a good day for batting. Having lost Ravichandran Ahwin in just the 3rd over of the day, Wriddhiman Saha along with Amit Mishra put together a dogged partnership to help India post a respectable first innings score of 393. In reply, Sri Lanka found runs hard to come by as they lost wickets at regular intervals to finish the day at 140 for the loss of 3 wickets with Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne at the crease.

The first session started well for the Lankans as Mathews had Ashwin caught at short cover early on. However Saha and Mishra put on 46 runs for the 8th wicket, with Saha in particular looking solid at the crease. Prasad and Mathews got the ball to move around early and were unlucky not to pick up more wickets. In his 3rd delivery of the morning, Prasad’s delivery to Saha clipped the off stump but the bails remained in tact, while later on a caught behind was sent up to the 3rd umpire but was deigned to have fallen short of Chandimal. Mishra, who had looked extremely vulnerable against the pace bowlers, finally fell nicking behind off Dushmantha Chameera. India survived the first session, thanks mostly to Saha’s half century, but was dismissed early in the post lunch session, having added 74 runs to their overnight score. Rangana Herath picked up the valuable wicket of Saha and then Ishant Sharma, both trapped LBW.

Sri Lanka began their innings in what has become customary fashion: with Dimuth Karunaratne being dismissed LBW in Umesh Yadav’s first delivery of the game. The entire game paused for a few minutes as Kumar Sangakkara walked in – with the Indian players, led by Virat Kohli, and even umpires Bruce Oxenford and Rod Tucker lining up to form a guard of honour.  The great man was greeted at the crease by a quick inswinging Yorker by Yadav, which Sangakkara managed to dig out. India’s bowling continued to test both Kaushal Silva and Sangakkara but the pair managed to battle through it and put on a partnership of 74. Silva rode his luck as he was caught off a no ball from Stuart Binny; denying Binny his first test wicket. Sri Lanka finished the session at 65 for the loss of just one wicket.

All of Sri Lanka was probably hoping for a big score from Sangakkara in what was possibly his second to last innings. However, the combination of Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane got him out once again, as he nicked the off spinner to slip. Silva put on a further 39 runs with Lahiru Thirimanne, notching up another hard fought half century in the process. He could not convert it into a big score however and was caught out trying to play the sweep shot off leg spinner Mishra. Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews walked in at the fall of Silva’s wicket and survived a few testing overs from the Indian bowlers to put on 36 unbeaten runs for the 4th wicket, with Thirimanne.

Sri Lanka ended the day at 140 for 3 and will look to consolidate their position further and build a sizeable 1st innings score when play resumes tomorrow.

The Scores

India 393 all out (KL Rahul 108, R Sharma 79, R Hearth 4/81, A Mathews 2/24)

Sri Lanka 140/3 (K Silva 51, K Sangakkara 32, A Mishra 1/9, U Yadav 1/34)

Full Scorecard (Courtesy – BBC Sport)