For most of the day, Sri Lankan bowlers didn’t get anything to cheer about as Indian batsmen Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli stitched a huge partnership of 283 for the third wicket. India amassed runs at more than four an over, and towards the end of the day, it was looking like India would end the day only two down.
But chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan first dismissed Vijay and asking him to reach out to drive. In his next over, Sandakan repeated the trick against Ajinkya Rahane. India had gone from 361 for 2 to 365 for 4. Still, though, this was India’s day. At stumps, Kohli was batting on 156*, his third century in a row and the fastest as well as he only took 110 balls to reach the hundred run mark of his 20 in Tests. In the process, he also became the fourth-quickest Indian batsman to 5000 Test runs, getting there in his 105th innings.
Until the moment of Sandakan’s transformation, Vijay and Kohli had looked in complete control. Aside from a couple of clearly not-out lbw shouts, their dominance had gone unchallenged.
The base of Kohli’s innings was his supreme reading of the spinners’ length along with his impeccable to dive on marginal mistakes. However, this hadn’t been true of Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara, who both got off to casual starts before falling against the run of play.
Once it became clear there was little help in this pitch for the pacers, Dhawan and Vijay started their innings pretty freely and smashed eight fours in the first ten overs. But Shikhar grew a little greedy, and picked out deep square leg with a top-edged sweep on 23. It was Dilruwan’s 100th Test wicket had come up in his 25th Test, and no Sri Lankan had got there quicker. Muttiah Muralitharan had taken 27 Tests.
In walked Pujara, whose last four partnerships with Vijay read 107, 178, 102 and 209. They seemed to be continuing their dominance over the oppositions, but this time the partnership would only get as far as 36. Lahiru Gamage broke the partnership, Sri Lanka benefiting from the same plan that had brought them Pujara’s wicket in the second innings in Galle in late July.
Brief scores: India 371 for 4 (Kohli 156*, Vijay 155, Sandakan 2-110) vs Sri Lanka
