Virat Kohli’s Indian juggernaut continued their rampage over Sri Lanka, when they completed a massive innings victory on the fourth day in Nagpur.
Sri Lanka resumed day four on 21/1 still needing a further 384 runs to avoid an innings defeat. Dimuth Karunaratne was the first man to be dismissed as he looked to flick one through mid-wicket off Ravindra Jadeja, only to see the short leg fielder Murali Vijay holding on to the catch using his thighs.
Sri Lanka continued to crumble to the spin of Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin from there on as the duo shared six wickets between them.
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Dinesh Chandimal was the only shinning light in an otherwise horrendous batting performance, on a pitch where India piled on 610/6 in their first innings. Chandimal made 61 runs and looked at his fluent best as he hit 10 boundaries in his 82 ball knock.
Dasun Shanaka came out with intent and looked to take the attack to the Indian bowlers and managed to strike a few lusty blows, before he was eventually undone by Ashwin for an 8 ball 17.
Chandimal continued a lone battle against some top quality indian bowling before he finally found an unlikely partner in Suranga Lakmal. The duo added 58 runs for the ninth wicket only to delay the inevitable as Sri Lanka folded up for 166 runs in their second innings, thus handing an innings and 239 run win for India.
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Lakmal remained unbeaten on 31* hitting 2 fours and a six in an enterprising knock while Ashwin picked up the last wicket to fall which also made him the fastest bowler in the history of Test cricket to reach 300 wickets. He ended up with figures of 4/63 in the second innings to follow up on his first innings effort of 4/67.
Virat Kohli made a double hundred for India in their mammoth first innings score of 610/6 declared, while Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma chipped in with centuries.
This is Sri Lanka’s heaviest defeat in Test history (in terms of innings defeats) and India’s biggest biggest Test win – they had also won by the same margin against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2007.
