Mohali, March 5: Ravindra Jadeja paid a fitting tribute to one of his earliest mentors Shane Warne with a majestic 175 not out as India took complete command of the opening Test against Sri Lanka with a mammoth first innings total of 574/8 declared on the second day here.
The hosts declared their innings after quite literally batting Sri Lanka out of the game. In the final session, Ravichandran Ashwin (61 & 2/21), having nicely warmed up with his 12th half-century, removed Lahiru Thirimanne and Dhananjaya De Silva to go past Sir Richard Hadlee’s 431 victims.
Jadeja (1/30) later celebrated his hundred once again by trapping Sri Lanka’s best player and skipper Dimuth Karunaratne (28) leg before.
Jasprit Bumrah (1/20) disposed off Angelo Mathews to leave them tottering at 108 for 4 as a three-day finish looked imminent.
Sri Lanka still needs 267 runs to avoid follow-on. Jadeja’s career-best knock, his second ton in Test cricket, came less than 24 hours after the cricket world tried to come to terms with Warne’s tragic end.
It was Warne, who first realised Jadeja’s untapped batting potential during Rajasthan Royals’ 2008 IPL campaign, where it was his late hitting that earned him the ‘Rockstar’ moniker from his mentor-captain.
India had scored 217 runs in two sessions. It did help that Sri Lanka were a pacer short with their fastest bowler Lahiru Kumara left indisposed due to a hamstring injury. He failed to complete his 11th over and over dependence on the inexperienced Lasith Embuldeniya (2/188) also harmed their cause.
Jadeja batted for five and half hours, faced 228 balls and by the time he walked back to the pavilion, he had hit 17 fours and three sixes.
A partnership of 130 with Ashwin for the seventh wicket and another 103 runs with Mohammed Shami (20*) for the unbroken ninth wicket basically nailed Sri Lanka.
Jadeja and Ashwin made India look proactive while Sri Lanka despite the hammering that they received weren’t even reactive.
Bowling to Jadeja with a deep mid-wicket, long-off/on, deep extra cover and deep fine leg with an aim to stop the boundaries was a negative approach and it didn’t really make much of a difference.
Save veteran seamer Suranga Lakmal (2/90), none of the other bowlers pitched it in the right areas.
Such was the plight of the Lankan fielders that Embuldeniya couldn’t even pick up and throw the ball to keeper Niroshan Dickwella when Mohammed Shami had literally come down to the non-striker’s end.
India scored at 4.43 runs per over during the course of 129.2 overs. Often an uneven contest between bat and ball becomes extremely boring and the first two days of this Test match once again would raise a debate whether it’s about time for the ICC to mull on having a two-tier Test system to make it more appealing for the fans. (PTI)
