Sri Lanka vs India, 2nd Test Match, Day 2: 5 Talking Points

Day 2 of the Colombo Test match between India and Sri Lanka was no different than the First Day as the visitors continued to consolidate their dominance over the home side. During the start of the day, the primary objective of Kohli and co. would have been to reach 600 run mark, but few early dismissals hampered their chances of reaching the score.

However, late order contribution from the batsmen at 6,7, and 9 powered the Indian score to 622-9 as Kohli decided to declare the innings, looking to have a go at the Sri Lankans later in the evening. The Lankans lost their openers at the end of the day and are now looking to save the follow-on primarily with Mendis and Chandimal in the middle and the score at 50-2. Let us go through the five talking points in the days play.

1. Lanka managing to see the back of Pujara and Rahane early

After the dominance of the Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane on Day 1, it was expected that the duo would continue to fill in their boots with runs as they looked unperturbed at the crease. Pujara has the reputation of scoring the daddy hundreds while Rahane would have wanted to make most of the opportunity and score as many runs as possible. However, it was not to be as Pujara could only manage to add 5 runs to his overnight score and his partner added 20 more to his total.

Both Pujara and Rahane were the maiden Test wickets of rookies Karunaratne and Pushpakumara. Sri Lanka would have taken a sigh of relief to see the back of the two prolific run scorers of India. The two quick wickets stemmed the flow of runs in the morning session and gave a hope to the home side to dismiss the Indians within 450-500. Sri Lanka then had their task out post lunch to keep chipping in with wickets and restrict the Indian lower order.