Bengaluru, March 12: India was eliminated 252 in their first innings by Sri Lanka at the dinner break despite a brilliant tackle from Shreyas Iyer (92 of 98) on the opening day of the second and final test (pink ball game) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Saturday.
Resuming the second session at 93/4, the runs came quickly for India as Rishabh Pant played some attacking shots. With seven limits, Pant ran to 39 of 26 balls before being cleared by Emboldeniya.
Ravindra Jadeja (4), who came up to bat next, didn’t last long as Embuldeniya scalped another wicket. R Ashwin then joined Shreyas Iyer at the crease and helped the hosts regain stability by carving out a handy 35-run position for seventh wicket.
Just when it seemed the Iyer-Ashwin partnership was getting India into a strong position, De Silva gave Sri Lanka the breakthrough, eliminating Ashwin by 13. However, Iyer continued to hammer limits at the other end and reached his goals. fifty despite not getting much support from the following batters: Axar Patel (9), Mohammed Shami (5).
With India at 229-9, Iyer decided to go all out and crushed some towering sixes and closed in on his century. Ultimately, he was fired for 92, losing his century by only eight runs.
Praveen Jayawickrama (3/81), Lasith Embuldeniya (3/94), Dhananjaya de Silva (2/32) and Suranga Lakmal (1/12) were the winners from Sri Lanka.
Earlier in the day, India won the toss and opted to bat first, but the hosts got off to a poor start as Mayank Agarwal ran out four. against Agarwal who was rejected. The Indian batsmen thought they could sneak in a run and Mayank ran downfield.
However, there was some confusion from Rohit at the other end and the Sri Lankans made the most of it and took out Agarwal. Hanuma Vihari then joined Rohit Sharma at the crease. The duo added 19 runs for second wicket before Lasith Embuldeniya fired Rohit for 15.
On a blown delivery, Rohit pounced on the front defense and gained an outside advantage while Silva’s Dhananjaya stayed low to make a fine catch, leaving India in trouble at 29-2 after 9.3 overs.
However, Virat Kohli, who received loud applause in his IPL arena, and Vihari stabilized India’s innings. Vihari punished short balls thrown in and stitched up a handy 47-run run for the third wicket before Vihari fell to Jayawickrama in the 31st. Soon Kohli was also caught in front of the wicket in the 23rd by Dhananjaya de Silva before the tea break. .
Short scores: India 252 in total in 59.1 overs (Shreyas Iyer 92, Rishabh Pant 39; Praveen Jayawickrama 3/81) vs Sri Lanka