India and Sri Lanka will be locking horns in a grueling and it looks to be hopeful despite India enjoying the upper hand in terms of form and involvement. The series has conventionally been a thrilling one with a plethora of brilliant innings and superb bowling performances in past.
Here are 5 of the best Indian bowling performances against Sri Lanka in Lanka:
1. Zaheer Khan’s 4-76
The Sri Lankan pitches have never known to be supportive for the pacers but Zaheer Khan produced an unusual performance that proved his class and talent.
Team India was 42 runs behind after their first innings while chasing Sri Lanka’s 274 runs. In second innings, Zaheer ripped through the strong batting line-up by taking the big wickets of Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Russell Arnold.
2. Venkatesh Prasad’s 5-72
Venkatesh Prasad was another one who produced a brilliant bowling performance in Sri Lankan soil. Playing in Kandy, Prasad bowled a phenomenal spell with Zaheer Khan as India won a famous test match.
Batting first, the Lankans were bowled out for 274 but managed to curb India to just 232. In reply, they could only make 221 thanks to Prasad.
3. Ravichandran Ashwin’s 5-42
After losing the first Test of the three-match Test series, India needed to win the next game in order to stand a chance to win the series. They batted first and put a comfortable score of 393 which was cut down to an 87 run lead thanks to Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 306.
On a moving day, India managed to extend their second innings lead to 413 before declaring and gave Sri Lanka a day and a half to chase the score down. While they were playing for a draw, Ashwin had other ideas.
Ashwin rattled the Lankan batting order by picking up the prized wickets of Kumar Sangakkara and Thirimanne and his five wickets won the game for India.
4. Anil Kumble’s 5-24
The legendary Indian leg-spinner took 5 wickets in the first innings that helped India post a huge 235 run victory.
After being put into bat, India managed 366 runs with the help of Vinod Kambli’s century and Navjot Singh Sidhu’s 85 runs. After the first innings, Team India was looking for someone to bowl at the Lankans effectively and Kumble took the responsibility.
Playing in one of his first ever series, Kumble took 5 wickets for just 24 runs as the Lankans had no clue what had hit them. India won the Test as Kumble picked up another 3 in their second innings.
5. Harbhajan Singh’s 6-102 (best bowling performance)
Playing in Galle, India displayed an all-around performance as they cruised to a victory against their rivals. Virender Sehwag was the hero with the bat as he smashed a wonderful 201 as India hit 329.
In the second innings, Harbhajan Singh came to the rescue and caused mayhem amongst the Sri Lankan team. He took 6 wickets in quick succession as Sri Lanka bundled out by conceding a 37 run lead.
India managed to set a target of 307 for the Lankans but they were once again stopped by the brilliant spell by Harbhajan, as he picked up 4 more wickets to take his haul to 10 and win India the game.
