India v Sri Lanka 2nd Test, 2017: Who Said What

The Nagpur Test match was a prime example of how good this Indian team is especially in home conditions. Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first on a good batting surface but couldn’t last the day against the charged up Indian bowlers. Ishant Sharma making a comeback got going early and picked three wickets while the spinners were back in the business and claimed the other seven.

When India walked out to bat the conditions looked different, it gave the feel of a really good batting wicket as batsman after batsman piled on the runs, only two who failed were KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane who returned with single figures while the rest- Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma scored hundreds as captain Virat Kohli got his 5th double ton.

In reply to Sri Lanka’s 205 Team India posted 610/6decl and the 405-run lead was always going to be too big for them. On the fourth day, Indian bowlers allowed Sri Lanka to bat just over a session as Ravichandran Ashwin- 4 and Ravindra Jadeja- 2 shared six wickets, Ishant and Umesh Yadav picked the other four and the Lankans were bowled out for 166 in the 50th over.

India won the match by a massive margin of an innings and 239 runs to match their biggest win in Test cricket. This game also proved to be special for Ashwin who claimed his 300th wicket and is the fastest to the mark.

Skipper Virat Kohli who was also the Man of the Match said:

“The pitch was good to bat on. It was on the slower side, but there was nothing much happening from the pitch. I just wanted to bat the way I bat how I wanted to. Get into good position and rotate strike nad score quickly so our bowlers have time to bowl the opposition out. We will need that overseas so I was looking at doing that.

I always wanted to better myself at, in scoring daddy hundreds, for the simple reason that the team benefits. When you lose concentration after a hundred, maybe two wickets can fall quickly. A set batsman can play shots easier than a new batsman so I started thinking in that way and my fitness helps me bat for longer periods.

Pujara we know, he’s been very consistent. Vijay was playing after a while, he takes pride in playing Test cricket. I know it hurt him to be out and he came back really well. Rohit as well, making a strong case for himself in the future. He will always be there when we speak about combinations. We have a lot of Test cricket coming up.

All the bowlers, Bhuvi has played a lot of cricket for India in the last few months. Ishant, Shami and Umesh, not so much. But they bowled a lot of overs in first-class cricket and they always say that’s important for rhythm. And even on this pitch, they were excellent. Although the spinners did a good job for us, Ishant was the standout bowler.

We would like to think we want to prepare for South Africa. That’s why we asked for pitches with help for the fast bowlers. This one deteriorated. Kolkata was the ideal wicket. There’s not enough time in between to prepare so we have to use the time we have now for a big tour coming up”

He has to answer a lot of tough questions heading into the Delhi Test but the Sri Lankan captain felt his bowlers did a fair job while the batsmen needed to improve their game.

Dinesh Chandimal said:

“It was a good toss to win. Unfortunately, we were outplayed from the first day of the game. Our batting unit let us down again. You have to score at least 350 plus against India to win or even stay in it for five days.

Before we came here, we had a gameplan. Then we said to the guys, if you get a start, you have to bat long. But they scored only 50-60 runs and got out. Its unfortunate but I’m sure they will learn. Angelo is the one who is the most senior guy in the line-up. And if he is not scoring, our team goes down. As senior players you need to stand up and perform so the youngsters can follow.

I’m sure he will stand up and make it count again. Our body language when we were bowling for three days, it was superb. We need to score more runs in the first innings and that’s what we need to do in Delhi. On this wicket, first three days was good to bat on. First innings total became a big factor. Our bowling unit did a really great job, but if there’s no runs on the board, we can’t do anything”