India v Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Day 4 - 5 Talking Points

The fourth day of the ongoing Test match between India and Sri Lanka saw the centre of attention shift from the smog controversy to good all-round cricketing action at the Ferozshah Kotla Stadium, New Delhi. At the onset of the day, Sri Lanka were perched precariously at 356-9 still trailing by 180 runs, with their skipper, Dinesh Chandimal approaching the 150-mark. Chandimal got to his personal milestone, but was unable to stay on much longer as he was dismissed by Ishant Sharma.

Coming in to bat, the Indians put up stiff resistance on a pitch that made them work hard for their runs. Opener Murali Vijay failed to make an impression in his second outing in the Test match and Ajinkya Rahane‘s woeful string of low-scores continued. The quartet of Dhawan-Pujara-Kohli-Sharma added precious runs to the total, giving India a hefty lead of 410 runs to declare at. Notably, the Sri Lankans maintained a painstakingly slow over-rate, leading to the loss of a major chunk of the daily quota of overs.

Ideally, Sri Lanka would’ve wanted to walk through the last session of the day without any massive damage upfront, but they ended up losing 3 wickets. Ravindra Jadeja, in particular, bowled splendidly in the dying light to outfox opener, Dimuth Karunaratne as well as the night-watchman, Suranga Lakmal, leaving the Lankans reeling at a paltry figure of 31-3 at stumps.

Here are the 5 Talking Points from the day’s play:

1. Dinesh Chandimal records highest score against India

Sri Lankan captain, Dinesh Chandimal led from the front as he brought up his highest Test score against India. He survived the Indian bowling since Day 3, aided by the experienced Angelo Mathews. In spite of being just a wicket away from getting sent back to the pavilion, Chandimal held his nerves and his end at the crease. The 28-year old scored a fluent knock worth 164 runs, including 21 boundaries and a lone sixer.

2. Rahane fails yet again

Ajinkya Rahane would be scratching his head back in the dressing room, pondering over what went wrong. Throughout the Test series, the otherwise-composed batsman has looked uncharacteristically jittery and vulnerable to play excessively loose shots. His low-scoring stint saw yet another addition in India’s second innings as he was dismissed for just 10 runs off the bowling of Dilruwan Perera on Day 4 of the third Test. The right-handed batsman has managed to accrue just 17 runs over the last 5 innings that he’s played against the Lankans with score of 4, 0, 2, 1  and 10 respectively.

3. Dhawan- Kohli – Rohit trio score a half-century apiece

Apart from Rahane and Vijay, the Indian batting order didn’t disappoint in their second innings. Shikhar Dhawan scored 67 runs in his usual swashbuckling style, the added bonus being that the knock came on his birthday and at his home turf. The Indian skipper, picked up right from where he’d left off in the first innings and continued with his run-galore to smash his fifteenth half-century in Test Cricket. Alongside Kohli, Rohit Sharma played at an admirable strike-rate of 102.04 to bring up his own half-century after which India declared their innings. These three knocks were crucial in fortifying India’s dominance in the Test and helped them gain a mammoth lead worth 410 runs against the visitors.

4. Mohammad Shami bowls splendidly, yet again

Indian pace spearhead, Mohammad Shami exuded an aura of determination and aggression as he ran up to bowl each delivery in the fourth innings of the game. He notched up figures of 3-1-8-1 at the end of the day. The feisty fast bowler amped up his bowling and bowled some exquisite bouncers to add that extra bit of firepower to his bowling. He troubled opener, Sadeera Samarawickrama with a splendid bouncer in the sixth over of the innings, before dismissing him in the very next delivery. Shami hit the deck hard and bowled at a steady pace, his performance augmented further by the regular bouncers that deprived the opposition batsmen of the opportunity to settle down.

5. Jadeja provides two crucial breakthroughs

‘Sir’ Ravindra Jadeja proved once again why he’s worthy of that inflated title. The spinner provided India with the crucial breakthroughs towards the end of the day’s play. Not only did he maintain a tight grip on the opposition’s run-flow, but also flummoxed the Lankan batsmen time and again. The last over before stumps saw Jadeja pick up opener Dimuth Karunaratne (13) and dismiss nightwatchman, Suranga Lakmal for a duck just 3 deliveries later. His quick, successive blows meant that the Lankans were 3 wickets down and ensured that India remained in the driver’s seat at the end of the day.