Pant’s 66 off 69 put India in command before Sri Lanka lost their top four
Sri Lanka 284 and 84 for 4 (de Silva 31*, Suthar 2-30, Siraj 1-11) need 288 runs to beat India 462 and 193 (Pant 66, Padikkal 44, Asitha 4-41)
India are six wickets from winning the Galle Test after a fourth day on which they scored enough to leave Sri Lanka needing a record chase, and their bowlers put together a relentlessly testing session for the hosts. On a pitch that continued its progression towards the typical brute it becomes towards the end in Galle, Rishabh Pant‘s maverick innings of 66 off 69 made sure India all but batted the hosts out of the Test. Mohammed Siraj, Manav Suthar and Prasidh Krishna then took the wickets to eliminate the likelihood Sri Lanka might have hoped for of winning.
With India starting 178 ahead, this was always going to be a day that could be played on a simulator. While it reached the expected end, the game certainly took the scenic route. Sri Lanka were better with their control with the ball, their fast bowlers bowled some heat in the middle session, and Pant had to pull out some Pant specials to make sure India kept scoring at around four an over as they likely juggled thoughts of scoring quickly and also a declaration with the rain always lurking in Galle. In the end, they didn’t need the declaration with Asitha Fernando taking 4 for 31, the best figures by a Sri Lanka quick at home since Suranga Lakmal’s 4 for 29 in 2019.
The first of those wickets wasn’t the best delivery Asitha has bowled, getting Yashasvi Jaiswal on the cut, the seventh time Jaiswal has perished to that shot against pace. Since his debut, nobody has been dismissed when cutting fast bowlers as often as him.
Karnataka team-mates KL Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal added 65 breezy runs in a partnership that featured attractive runs, a hug and a blown kiss from Rahul to Padikkal for convincing him to review an lbw given on the field.
Rahul didn’t last too long after that reversal, and Sri Lanka put together testing periods of play either side of lunch, getting the wickets of Rahul, Padikkal, Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel in relative quick succession.
Pant then turned the mundane into the exciting on a pitch that was not only turning but going up and down even with the old ball. Asitha and Lahiru Kumara kept trying to bounce batters while also slowing down the play. Pant found unique ways to score runs, dancing down and flat-batting short balls down the ground but also sensationally pulling balls behind square by getting inside the line. One of those pulls brought up his fifty and his 100th career six. Only two have hit more.
Those without a dog in the race might have expressed mild consternation that India kept batting once Pant got out with the lead at 352, especially because they were not able to score quick runs against testing bowling anyway, but it is difficult to go by the previous few days and risk declaring without absolutely batting the opposition out of the game.
By the time they were bowled out, India had a lead of 371 and four sessions to take ten wickets. A brief rain interruption only underlined the uncertainty that India would have had to deal with, but they still had two and three-quarters of an hour to make inroads.
And make inroads they did with the kind of collective performance captains love. It wasn’t just Suthar, it wasn’t just spin as bowlers from both ends kept asking questions. Ten of the first 20 overs were bowled by fast bowlers, and produced 2 for 20 out of a score of 41 for 3 at that time.
Siraj tried to repeat the first-innings dismissal of Nishan Madushka when he bowled the regulation outswinger, which nipped away and Madushka followed it. This time Madushka kept denying him until Siraj bounced him with the last ball of his fourth over. Madushka failed to keep the hook down.
In came Pasindu Sooriyabandara, debuting in the middle of the Test as a replacement for Dinesh Chandimal, who was concussed while diving in the field. Immediately he went out, caught on the crease to Suthar, who managed to bowl one that turned less than expected and went past the right-hander’s inside edge. Imagine getting that as the first ball of your career, which has started without notice. Sooriyabandara did take a lovely catch earlier, though, diving to his left at backward square leg to send back Ravindra Jadeja.
Prasidh followed up Siraj’s spell with an impressive one of his own, which read 5-2-9-1 by the time he was done. While the wicket ball was one that bounced extra from short of a length, he was persistent with good lengths most of the time and drew reaction from the surface both laterally and up and down. Kusal Mendis was the man out trying to cut.
Gill kept giving even his spinners short and sharp spells, which almost worked when Jadeja repeated the first-innings dismissal of Dhananjaya de Silva with a catch to first slip, but it turned out he had overstepped.
A crouching gully worked for Suthar as Dhruv Jurel pulled off a low catch to send back Lahiru Udara, a catch that created debate, which was settled by, in the words of the third umpire, fingers underneath the ball. When bad light stopped play at 6.08pm, a total of 280 overs had been bowled in the Test. Going by the average number of overs bowled per day, if India were to get 70 overs on the final day, there would be a burst of 24 overs with the second new ball.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at Cricinfo
