Sanga’s farewell party……………….

Sri Lanka went down meekly to hand over a 278 run win to India who squared the three Test match series 1-1 soon after lunch on the fifth and final day of the second Test at the P. Sara Stadium yesterday.

Ravichnadran Ashwin masterminded the visitors win, capturing 5 wickets in an inspired spell of bowling ably assisted by right arm leg spinner Amith Mishra who shared eight wickets between them to inflict the defeat and give the Indian captain the first Test win captaining a full Test series for the first time. The Sri Lankan batsmen gave a totally spineless and careless batting display while countering a world class spin attack. The Test would have finished before the lunch interval, but a downpour about fifteen minutes prior to the lunch interval delayed the inevitable loss for Sri Lanka as it was just a matter of time as to when would the curtain come down.

At the start of the final day there was much speculation whether Sri Lanka could make the 341 which they had to get after reducing the 413 by scoring 72 for 2 on the previous day. And could the Indian spinners use the turning pitch to mystify the batsmen. A lot depended on the Sri Lanka skipper Mathews who was unbeaten on 23 overnight and Dimuth Karunaratne 25 n.o. But the hosts got off to a dreadful start in the morning losing Mathews in the very first ball of the day sent by Umesh Yadav. He bowled a good first ball on the off stump and Mathews hung his bat to give the make-shift wicket keeper Wriddhiman Saha to snap the catch and Mathews went without adding to his overnight score. This ushered in a crisis situation for the Lankans which they never recovered. Chandimal promoted in the batting may be to keep the left-right batting combination made his intentions clear that he is going to live by the sword and paid the penalty.

He struck a boundary and hooked Ishant Sharma over deep fine leg for a six and while going for an ambitious sweep exposing his leg stump to Amith Mishra in his first over was bowled around his legs.
In a post match press briefing, skipper Angelo Mathews said that ‘We lost the game in the first innings. We did not play our best cricket. The wicket was pretty good to bat on and we gave a big lead and chasing a total of 400 runs plus was not easy. We just wanted to bat positively putting our negative thoughts away. It was not a really stiff target and we wanted to bat on some where around tea and see how it goes. But unfortunately I was out in the very first ball .We’ll try and get some positives out of the loss and go for the next Test. We knew that the Indians are going to come back hard on us and they played better cricket than us. Even in the first Test we came back late to win the game.’ Said the Sri Lankan captain.

He further said that he was sad that the team was unable to give Sangakkara a fitting finale and spoke highly on Ravichandran Ashwin’s efforts. ‘He was very accurate and you need to concentrate a lot while facing him.’ Indian captain Virat Kohli said that the win was pretty satisfying as they came twice, once in Adelaide and then in Galle of winning a Test. It is commendable as the boys regrouped themselves to win the Test.

He was full of praise of Ashwin’s efforts as he has been among the wickets where ever he bowled. In his mindset he is bowling in an aggressive manner. He is bowling beautifully right now even confusing the right handers. A spinner of that quality is an asset to have in any team. A weapon that any captain to have in his team.