SA won by & inns & 120 runs v ZIM in only Test

Day 1

Zimbabwe 30 for 4 trail South Africa 309 for 9 dec by 279 runs

Four wickets fell for the addition of 251 runs in the first two sessions. Nine wickets fell in the third session, for the addition of 88 runs. Under clear blue skies, St George's Park was close to being a batting paradise. Under lights, it turned into a seaming monster. It's hard to say if this was fair and balanced Test cricket, but it provided rich entertainment for the Boxing Day crowd, especially those cheering the home side.

At the end of it all, Zimbabwe were stuttering at 30 for 4 in reply to South Africa's 309 for 9 declared. This being a four-day Test - the first since February 1973 - Zimbabwe will need to get to 160, rather than 110, to avoid the follow-on.

South Africa's heroes on this bizarre and breathless day's cricket were Aiden Markram, who made his second century in only his fourth Test innings and held an otherwise profligate batting line-up together in the first two sessions, and Morne Morkel, who took three wickets and looked utterly unplayable in the 16 overs Zimbabwe faced before stumps.

There was seam and there was bounce, and Morkel nipped one in to trap Hamilton Masakadza lbw off the first ball of the innings. Then he nicked off Chamu Chibhabha and Brendan Taylor to end the day with figures of 3 for 20 in seven overs. Vernon Philander, giving absolutely nothing away, had Craig Ervine lbw - the ball pitching on leg stump and straightening to give him the tightest of umpire's-call decisions - and ended with 6-3-5-1. In just over an hour of batting, Zimbabwe went from elation to despondency, and may have wondered if they - like Don Bradman's Australians at the MCG in 1936-37 - should have sent their lower order in first.

South Africa's line-up hadn't had a great time under lights either. From a solid 272 for 4, they lost five wickets for 37 runs in seven overs before AB de Villiers, deputising for Faf du Plessis who is sitting out this Test with a viral infection, declared.

When the post-dinner session began, South Africa were 251 for 4. It was a situation of seeming security, but they had lost Markram, who made his second Test century, off the last ball of the second session, and had Nos. 5 and 6 at the crease.

Till that point, Markram had been the only South African batsman dismissed by a genuine wicket-taking delivery, Kyle Jarvis getting one to straighten in the channel and finding the edge after forcing the batsman to play.

The other three wickets had all been soft dismissals. All three had something to do with the slowness of the St. George's Park surface, but also with unwise strokes; Dean Elgar, who had moved attractively to 31, flicked Jarvis uppishly; Hashim Amla failed to keep down a back-foot slash; and de Villiers drove early to offer a return catch to Chris Mpofu.

And so it was that South Africa began the post-dinner session four down. Only 14.3 overs remained until the new ball would become available, and they would have hoped Temba Bavuma and Quinton de Kock would survive until that point. As it happened, their entire innings didn't get that far.

Jarvis sent back Bavuma with a delivery not dissimilar to the one that dismissed Markram, before Graeme Cremer picked up a pair of quick lbws to send back Vernon Philander and de Kock. Kagiso Rabada was run out going for a needless second run, before Mpofu had Keshav Maharaj caught at gully to prompt the declaration.

When Zimbabwe came out to bat, de Villiers wore the wicketkeeping gloves, with de Kock off the field with a hamstring injury sustained while running between the wickets.

Until Jarvis sent him back with arguably the ball of the day, Zimbabwe had struggled to find a way past Markram. He punished anything he could cut or pull, and looked particularly impregnable in defence when the ball was on off stump or straighter. He was seldom tied down by good-length balls on or around off stump, getting off strike frequently by working the ball wide of mid-on, and anything remotely on his legs ran away to the leg-side boundary.

A wider line tested him occasionally, his natural inclination to feel ball on bat leading him to play at deliveries other batsmen may have left, but such indiscretions were few and far between. On one occasion, Zimbabwe wasted a review when Blessing Muzarabani, the stick-thin, 2m-tall debutant, beat his outside edge.

Zimbabwe made poor use of their second review as well, failing to spot a de Villiers inside-edge onto pad, and so, when they had an actual case to review a not-out decision against Markram on 70 - Chamu Chibhabha struck him just inside the line of off stump and ball-tracking suggested the ball would have gone on to hit the top of middle - they had none left.

By that point, Markram and de Villiers had turned a position of relative parity at tea into one of South African dominance. De Villiers, playing his first Test since January 2016, looked like he had never gone away, playing with freedom and stroking the ball to all parts. He announced his arrival with a straight drive off Mpofu, which arrowed between the non-striker and the umpire, and gave Zimbabwe plenty to worry about with a series of boundaries off the back foot - the pick of them a pull for six off a slower ball from Jarvis - early in the second session.

Soon after passing 50, however, de Villiers became the third South African to fall to an avoidable shot. Yet again, South Africa had shown Zimbabwe a chink of light when they should have slammed the door shut on them.


Day 2

South Africa 309/9d
Zimbabwe 68 & 121 (42.3 ov, f/o)
South Africa won by an innings and 120 runs

This Test match was meant to last four days. It didn't last too much longer than four sessions. In all, it lasted 907 balls, which made it the third-shortest Test match since World War II, not counting the contrived events of the Centurion Test in 2000.

It was also the first two-day finish since 2005. Zimbabwe were the losing side then too, by an innings and 294 runs against New Zealand, and they lost this one by an innings and 120 runs, as South Africa rolled them over for 68 and 121 in a combined 72.4 overs.

Morne Morkel was South Africa's bowling hero in the first innings, picking up his seventh five-wicket haul in Test cricket and his first in five years. He was only needed for four overs after South Africa made Zimbabwe follow on. Keshav Maharaj didn't bowl at all in the first innings; he did the bulk of the wicket-taking in the second, finishing with figures of 5 for 59.

South Africa had reduced Zimbabwe to 30 for 4 overnight, and if their fast bowlers had benefited from the effect of the pink ball's behaviour under lights in the post-dinner session yesterday, it was back to clear skies and bright sunshine on day two. Yet the ball kept seaming - it was a testament to how South Africa's fast bowlers were hitting the pitch harder, and more frequently landing the ball on the seam, than their Zimbabwean counterparts.

It only took 3.1 overs for South Africa to get their first wicket of the day, Morkel going round the wicket to the left-handed debutant Ryan Burl and getting one to nip back in to knock back his off stump. Burl, driving well in front of his body, left a big gap for the ball to sneak through. Four balls later, Morkel had completed his five-for in only his ninth over. This time Sikandar Raza jabbed a long way from his body without moving his feet, and nicked to AB de Villiers, who will keep wicket for the rest of this Test match with a hamstring injury having laid Quinton de Kock low.

The medium-fast Andile Phehlukwayo, jagging the ball this way and that, and the genuinely quick Kagiso Rabada shared the last four wickets between them. The pick of these was Rabada's working-over of Graeme Cremer. Having gone wide of the crease and angled the previous two balls into the stumps, he delivered one from the same angle, only this time it straightened off the pitch. Forced to play at it, Zimbabwe's captain nicked behind.

Zimbabwe made a better start to their second innings, not losing a wicket in 13 overs before tea. They didn't get through that period entirely unscathed, though. In the fifth over, Morkel got one to bounce steeply at Hamilton Masakadza as he pressed forward to defend, and the ball dealt him a numbing blow to the right elbow. Masakadza retired hurt, leaving Chamu Chibhabha and Craig Ervine to steer Zimbabwe to tea with an unbroken partnership of 28. Ervine looked particularly confident, sweeping Maharaj and then stepping out to hit him over the long-on boundary.

They had extended their stand to 46 when Rabada had Chibhabha caught behind with one that bounced steeper than the batsman expected. Ervine and Brendan Taylor added 21 before the latter gave Maharaj his first wicket, a reverse-sweep ricocheting off pad and into the right hand of the diving Hashim Amla at slip, half an inch above the ground.

That wicket was the first of four in four overs, and two of them came off shots that shone a particularly harsh light on Zimbabwe's batting. For the second time in around three hours, Burl was out playing an ambitious drive away from his body - this time the ball seamed away and he nicked Phehlukwayo behind. Then Raza, stepping out and getting nowhere near the pitch of the ball, slogged and skewed a catch to backward point off the outside half of his bat.

Then Masakadza, who came back out at the fall of the sixth wicket, slog-swept Maharaj for a big six but didn't have too much of an answer to one that drifted in, landed on a good length, and then spun away sharply; all he could do was offer de Villiers his eighth catch of the match.

All that was left was for a couple of South African bowlers to pick up personal highlights. Vernon Philander was perhaps unlucky to only get one wicket in the first innings; he would only get one in the second too, but it would be a beauty, an away-seamer that beat Jarvis' outside edge and hit off stump. Then Maharaj bowled Nos. 10 and 11, Chris Mpofu and Blessing Muzarabani failing to connect with big hits, to bring up his third five-wicket haul in Test cricket.

ODI series NZ 3-0 WI

1st ODI

West Indies 248/9 (50 ov)
New Zealand 249/5 (46/50 ov)
New Zealand won by 5 wickets (with 24 balls remaining)

The early bird often gets the worm, but there is an equally good chance of nocturnal birds catching it. There are also significantly different approaches to ODI cricket. New Zealand are a disciplined team, insistent on doing the basics right. West Indies rely on their strength: a batting approach that revolves around attempting to find the boundary more often than gaps through the field. The longer the duration of a game, the better the chances of discipline trumping aggression.

West Indies weren't able to sustain their approach for long enough, but New Zealand did as they limited the visitors to 248 for 9, and then chased it down clinically in the first ODI in Whangarei. Doug Bracewell, on his return to international cricket after pleading guilty to a drink-driving offence, picked up 4 for 55 from eight overs, and legspinning ODI debutant Todd Astle finished with 3 for 33. New Zealand's openers, George Worker and Colin Munro then blazed away with a 108-run stand off just 100 balls to effectively kill the game on a surface that got progressively better to bat on.

Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis began cautiously, playing out three successive maidens. The first five overs produced four runs. Both batsmen soon found their hitting rhythm, combining for five fours and a six in a 40-run opening stand. At no point did they consider singles as a scoring option. Bracewell then had Gayle caught behind off his first ball. A thick inside edge had Shai Hope two balls later.

West Indies enjoyed their best period of batting thereafter, as Shimron Hetmyer and Lewis picked their deliveries to score off. Unsurprisingly, both batsmen were in most control when they were attacking. Hetmyer, though, failed to pick a googly from Astle in the 24th over, chipping a catch to long-off, an indicator that Hetmyer hasn't found his batting tempo just yet.

As has happened so often on their tour already, West Indies' middle order was again done in by a combination of pace and the lack of it. Lockie Ferguson, generating 145-kmph speeds, had Jason Mohammed caught on the crease and chopping onto his stumps. Jason Holder was caught at gully, a one-handed stunner from Ross Taylor to his right, off a legcutter from Bracewell. West Indies had quickly slumped from 103 for 2 to 134 for 5.

After a 43-run partnership that stabilised West Indies, Lewis misread a googly, missing a sweep off a full delivery on 76. Umpire Shamshuddin, it seemed, misread the variation too, as replays showed the ball would have missed off stump. West Indies didn't have a review left.

Rovman Powell displayed admirable patience, biding his time to carry West Indies to 50 overs. In Kesrick Williams' company, he struck a belligerent 50-ball 59, which included two fours and four sixes.

New Zealand's top order, led by openers Worker and Munro, showed up West Indies' woefully under-par total. West Indies' seamers bowled two lengths: too short or too full, struggling to find the perfect length in between. Both batsmen laid into short and wide deliveries, scoring a combined 47 runs square on the off side.

West Indies, though, hit back quickly with wickets in consecutive overs. Munro lobbed a catch to short cover in the 17th over, beaten slightly for pace off the bowling of Williams. Worker then misread the trajectory of a dart from Ashley Nurse, missing a cut that was far too close to his body.

With no lateral movement on an even surface, conditions were perfect for batting. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor looked largely unflustered in a 57-run partnership at 4.12 per over.

One of Williamson's strengths is his ability to rotate strike through third man with an angled bat, but with the line close to off stump, that stroke becomes risky. He chopped one such delivery from Jason Holder onto his stumps on 38.

Taylor stayed circumspect through his innings, displaying a keenness to take New Zealand home. His unbeaten 76-ball 49 included just two fours, but like New Zealand's way, it got the job done.


2nd ODI

New Zealand 325/6 (50 ov)
West Indies 121 (28/50 ov)
New Zealand won by 204 runs

A snowballing 130-run sixth-wicket stand propelled New Zealand to 325 for 6, before a smoldering Trent Boult blasted West Indies out for 121 with help from tearaway Lockie Ferguson.

West Indies have lost every game on tour, but rarely have they appeared so outmatched. The top order showed no fight against Boult's sniping accuracy and Ferguson's out-and-out-pace. They were virtually out of the game inside the first six overs, in which three wickets fell, and were all out by the 29th over. With this match goes the series - West Indies are 0-2 down with one match to play.

For the hosts, the 204-run victory featured several highlights. Not only were Boult's figures of 7 for 34 better than his previous best, they were also the second-best ODI figures for New Zealand by a whisker - Tim Southee having taken 7 for one run fewer in the 2015 World Cup. Henry Nicholls also produced a furious finish to the innings, after he and Todd Astle had lifted New Zealand from 186 for 5. His unbeaten 83 off 62 balls was also a personal best.

Elsewhere, George Worker produced an efficient fifty at the top of the innings, Ross Taylor's half-century held New Zealand together in the middle overs, and Ferguson made clear his potential, claiming 3 for 17 in four overs of hostile fast bowling.

Quicks of both teams were aided by the surface. Though Hagley Oval is usually the domain of swing and seam movement, it was the lift in this pitch that defined the match. West Indies had actually begun the match with some promise, dismissing four New Zealand top order batsmen with deliveries that leapt more than anticipated.

Although the West Indies' quicks' shorter lengths had proved a danger to batsman while the ball was new, there was also opportunity later on - 68 per cent of New Zealand's runs came square of the wicket. All innings long, only two boundaries were hit in the "V".

Boult began to maraud the moment he got ball in hand. He could have had Evin Lewis with his second delivery, had Worker held a very difficult chance some distance to his left. No matter. The last ball of that over zipped between Kyle Hope's bat and pad, and thundered into the stumps. Next over, Boult had Lewis miscuing a pull shot to the fine leg fielder - the drop having cost no more than nine runs.

Every time Boult bowled, a wicket did not seem far off. Still in his first spell, he had Shimron Hetmyer caught at slip for 2, then later, Shai Hope sending a ball high into the air off his top edge, to depart for a belligerent 23. By the end of Boult's initial six-over burst, the target already seemed 100 too many for the West Indies.

Perhaps they would have made a more creditable reply had Ferguson not added to their discomfort, however. Now quite clearly the fastest bowler in New Zealand - having pipped Adam Milne for that title - Ferguson went either at the stumps or at the body, and on a pitch that suited his bowling, had success doing both. Jason Mohammed was his first victim, fending at a delivery headed for his throat - the ball taking the shoulder of the bat and floating back to the bowler. Two balls later Rovman Powell played a shot that seemed to be light years two late - the offstump uprooted before the bat was even in position. Ferguson also dismissed Jason Holder with a short ball, before Boult came back to flatten the tail.

So good were New Zealand's quicks that perhaps West Indies were always going flounder, but in the first third of this match, the visiting quicks made regular breakthroughs, which suggested a contest could be on the cards. Then Nicholls and Astle turned what began as a recovery into a hailstorm of death-over boundaries. By the time Astle was dismissed for 49 in the final over, the previous 28 balls had produced 64 runs.

As was the case for Ferguson, this was a pitch that suited Nicholls' batting beautifully, however. Adept at the cross-batted strokes, he cut and pulled his way into a rhythm early in his innings, and let fly with the innovations later on. Of particular note was the overhead scoop off Ronsford Beaton in the 45th over - the shot that heralded the mayhem. Three overs later, Nicholls was walloping two sixes and two fours in a Shannon Gabriel over that yielded 22. In the first 37 deliveries he faced, Nicholls had hit 27 - overturning an lbw decision against him in that time. Off his last 25 balls, Nicholls plundered 56, even finding a place for the full deliveries beyond the square boundary.

Astle's innings was not quite so explosive - he had largely sought to turn the strike over to Nicholls, scoring exclusively with singles and twos off his first 35 balls. He did eventually hit out, slog-sweeping Rovman Powell for six twice in the 49th over. A little fortune made that final flourish possible: Astle had been dropped off Powell by wicketkeeper Shai Hope, in the 46th over.

West Indies were not completely without performers. Sheldon Cottrell - the left-arm quick who replaced the injured Kesrick Williams in this match - was the first bowler to use the short ball effectively in this match. His figures worsened as a result of New Zealand's fast finish, but he claimed a creditable 3 for 62 nonetheless. Holder returned 2 for 52 for himself.

But although visiting teams sometimes feel as they have the measure of New Zealand conditions, the home side almost unfailingly have in their ranks players who turn the match emphatically in their favour. This is New Zealand's ninth series victory in their 10 last bilateral series at home.


3rd ODI

New Zealand 131/4 (23 ov)
West Indies 99/9 (23 ov, target: 166)
New Zealand won by 66 runs (D/L method)

Trent Boult, fast, furious and virtually unplayable under overcast skies on a seaming track, ripped through West Indies' top order to clinch New Zealand's 66-run win via DLS method along with a 3-0 series whitewash at Hagley Oval.

Two nights ago, Boult had returned the second-best ODI figures by a New Zealand bowler at this venue. On Boxing Day, he picked three wickets across his first two overs to leave West Indies tottering at 9 for 5 in their pursuit of the revised target of 166 off 23 overs. That, there, was the game ripped out as West Indies remained winless on tour. More importantly, they weren't any closer to determining their squad balance ahead of the 2019 World Cup qualifiers in March.

Given West Indies' prowess in the shortest format, a target of 166 - set up for New Zealand largely by Ross Taylor (47 not out) and Tom Latham (37) - should have been right down their alley. But the loss of Chris Gayle in the first over, after he sliced a catch to point, didn't help matters. Things only became worse

Shai Hope hit a full inswinging delivery to midwicket, Kyle Hope was pinned in front by a full delivery that angled in although that was a debatable lbw call, Jason Mohammed's defence was breached by a full delivery that tailed in late to beat the inside edge and Chadwick Walton, replacing the injured Evin Lewis, was snuffed out by Boult's toe-crusher. West Indies captain Holder briefly triggered a surge as he picked off 15 off Todd Astle's first over, but the wickets of Rovman Powell and Ashley Nurse in successive overs left him high and dry.

New Zealand's spinners got into the act too. Mitchell Santner slowed the ball down and deceived Powell in flight, while Astle came back from a costly first over to dismiss Nurse with a ripping googly that left West Indies at 58 for 7. Santner went on to pick two more wickets for returns of 3 for 15.

The pace at which the house came down for West Indies was in sharp contrast to earlier in the day, when their faster men had New Zealand hopping and jumping. With every passing minute early on, it became increasingly evident that this was a very good toss to lose on a juicy surface under overcast skies.

Holder kept getting the ball to rear up at awkward lengths at New Zealand's openers. George Worker, in a bid to get the side going, chopped on against Sheldon Cottrell. Neil Broom, recalled to the side for the series and tested at No. 3, was out for another single-digit score, caught in the slips by Gayle while attempting to cut a delivery that wasn't all that short. The next over saw Holder dismiss Colin Munro, who nicked to Gayle at slip, and New Zealand were wobbling at 26 for 3.

By now, West Indies were charged up, so much that they went up for an optimistic review for an lbw against Tom Latham despite being uncertain. Replays confirmed the length ball that was angling away would've missed the stumps. That lost review would have come to their minds when Taylor survived a strong caught-behind appeal in an attempt to play hook shot off Cottrell only three overs later.

Shannon Gabriel's introduction in the 14th over, surprisingly behind the left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, allowed New Zealand some breathing room. Gabriel began waywardly and was picked by Taylor for two boundaries square of the wicket on the off side. In a bid to strengthen that side, the slip came off, only for the final delivery to race past the cordon off a thick outside edge.

Holder was a touch guilty of slipping into the defensive as early as the 13th over, when deep point and long-off were in place for Miller, as West Indies allowed the game to drift slightly. That helped New Zealand's recovery and they had reached 83 for 3 in 19 overs when the rains arrived to frustrate players, fans and officials for the next five hours.

A wait of close to three hours looked set to end when the umpires deemed the outfield fit enough for a 33-overs-a-side contest, only for the rain to return five minutes before resumption. Then there was another inspection, following which the match was reduced to 27 overs. It drizzled again. Just as the threat of an abandonment surfaced, the rains relented again for the umpires to truncate the game further to 24 overs, before they finally settled on 23 with the clock veering towards a call-off.

First Latham, and then Henry Nicholls picked off crucial boundaries in the end overs by unsettling West Indies' predictable lengths. Taylor then lent the finishing touches by picking two boundaries in the final over that went for 16. He was the top scorer with 47 not out as New Zealand added 48 off the last four overs to finish with 131 for 4. The surge towards the end that resulted in a target revision may have well been the clincher for West Indies.

Test Series (1-0), ODI series (2-1), T20 Series IND 3-0 SL

1st Test

Day 1

IND 17/3 (11.5 overs)
SL

Only 11.5 overs of cricket was possible in the first two sessions of the Kolkata Test, but they were 11.5 difficult overs for India, asked to bat on a damp green pitch under overcast skies. Suranga Lakmal made good use of the conditions to send back the openers and Virat Kohli without conceding a run in his six overs. If the impression that India had been thinking of South Africa even before finishing this series is correct, they were given a decent simulation with the ball seaming around in only the third Test in India since 2006 in which a side winning toss had chosen to bowl.

That decision was arrived at four hours after the scheduled toss time with rain keeping the players indoors. With Lakmal running amok, India were lucky to avoid a more persistent examination thanks to further drizzle and deteriorating light.

All this time waiting for the game to begin and resume might make India rethink their opening strategy. M Vijay and KL Rahul had been stellar in the last home season, but an injury to Vijay opened the door for Shikhar Dhawan to barge in with two hundreds on the tour of Sri Lanka. India persisted with Dhawan and Rahul even with Vijay fit now, but Dhawan proceeded to play a loose drive to be bowled for eight. A cover drive away from the body is just the shot India might be advised against when they go to South Africa.

Before that, Rahul had got the perfect delivery to start the Test. Lakmal bowled it on a length, just outside off, making Rahul play. The seam movement from the juicy surface did the rest to take the edge. The golden duck ended Rahul's run of seven successive half-centuries in Test cricket.

Cheteshwar Pujara, at the other end, showed the discipline required on such a pitch, playing only two scoring shots in the 43 balls he played. That he could do so was thanks in part to Lahiru Gamage, Lakmal's new-ball partner, who didn't make the batsmen play often enough. He was generally too short, and also provided width. Pujara used that to get his eye in, leaving balls alone studiously before he opened the mark with a soft edge past third slip off the 22nd ball he faced. Twenty-seven out of the 43 balls that Pujara faced came at the easier end.

When Dhawan got the width he cut it away for four, but at the other end, against good bowling, Dhawan - not to ignore significance of intent on such pitches - picked the wrong ball to go hard at.

Kohli walked out to a nightmare delivery that seamed away from a fullish length. He played the line as opposed to following the movement, which helped him avid the edge. Soon rain brought an early tea break, but post tea Kohli got the one that seamed back in from a similar length. This time - having scored zero off 10 balls and having been stuck at Lakmal's end all the while - he drove at it. A defensive shot would perhaps have produced an inside edge.

Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane didn't have to fight for too long before bad light brought an early end to an extraordinary day's Test cricket. This was only the third time since 2006 that a team had chosen to bowl after winning the toss in India. Accordingly Sri Lanka picked a seam-bowling allrounder to go with the two specialist quicks, a combination India could have chosen had they not rested Hardik Pandya keeping South Africa in mind. Who would have known at that time that weather and the re-laid Kolkata surface would provide them preparation for South Africa during home Tests?


Day 2

IND 74/5 (32.5 overs)
SL

Persistent rain dominated another day in Kolkata, allowing just 21 overs on the second morning. In all, just 32.5 overs have been bowled over two days. Sri Lanka's seamers had earlier capitalised on a dry, bowling-friendly morning at Eden Gardens, as Dasun Shanaka picked up two wickets with his gentle medium pace under gloomy skies offering sufficient lateral movement. Cheteshwar Pujara displayed impeccable defensive technique again, picking only the errant deliveries to score during his unbeaten 47, carrying India to 74 for 5 before a drizzle forced an early lunch.

The rain had relented for a short period around noon, but returned heavier and forced the officials to call off the second day at 2.30pm local, more than two hours before the scheduled close of play.

The little play on the second day wasn't short of action. Dinesh Chandimal, anticipating a long haul for his seamers, operated with a specialist fast bowler from one end and Shanaka from the other for the majority of the morning. Seam, like spin, is more effective at a quicker pace, disallowing batsmen time to be decisive with their feet and shot selection. Therefore, India's batsmen would have preferred Shanaka to two specialist fast bowlers.

However, these are atypical conditions for a Test match in India. With so much rain over the last few days, it seemed like a pitch on which the grass grew itself under the covers. That gave Shanaka, despite his 125 kmph range, a fair chance under overcast skies.

Pujara, attuned to such conditions through his recent stint with Nottinghamshire, came forward to drive away from his body only when Shanaka erred too full, hitting him for four boundaries through mid-off. However, Ajinkya Rahane, and then R Ashwin, misread Shanaka's perfect full deliveries for run-scoring opportunities, driving loosely with their hands too far away.

A scrambled-seam delivery, which neither swung nor seamed, found Rahane's outside edge, as he played for the inward angle. Ashwin had played 28 balls for four runs, his only scoring shot a sweetly-timed cover drive off a full toss from Shanaka, when he sliced a drive to backward point.

In between, Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Gamage generated appreciable swing and bounce - arguably too much on this surface - to beat the bat regularly. Ashwin was even rapped on the right hand by an inducking dart that kept climbing steeply to beat an awkward jab.

Pujara was rewarded for his diligence as Chandimal was forced to turn to Dimuth Karunaratne's even-gentler medium pace, hitting him for 12 runs off six wayward deliveries.



Day 3

Sri Lanka 165 for 4 trail India 172 by 7 runs

Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathews compiled contrasting fifties and shared a 99-run partnership that put Sri Lanka in the ascendancy of the Kolkata Test, cutting their deficit to just 7 by stumps on the third day.

They were united with the score on 34 for 2 but neither batsman chose to counterattack considering the plausibility of one delivery beating their defenses. They left well and allowed themselves to be beaten several times by playing the line, not pushing their hands too far in front of them. Soon, India's seamers erred, looking for more than was required, with half-volleys and short and wide offerings and the boundaries flowed.

Just like for Sri Lanka, India's seamers generated lateral movement from the outset. Bhuvneshwar Kumar produced swing both ways, while Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav used seam off the pitch. In addition to the two early wickets, they found a couple late in the day to ensure they didn't fall too far behind.

Despite sufficient movement, Sadeera Samarawickrama, promoted to open, batted fluently. Displaying a compact technique and languid elegance, he struck three fours on either side of the wicket in his 23. But continuing to hit through the line with the ball hooping just enough was an approach fraught with risk. Bhuvneshwar duly found his outside edge as he played away from his body.

Thirimanne and Mathews then swung the game in Sri Lanka's favour. Still on this surface, they needed luck. Bhuvneshwar kept penetrating Mathews' inside edge, hitting him on both pads. A shorter length, though, meant he survived lbw shouts due to the extra bounce. Umesh even found Thirimanne's outside edge, but Shikhar Dhawan spilled a simple catch at first slip.

Just after tea though, Umesh hit rhythm and cranked up the pace. An inswinger from around the wicket held its line, took Thirimanne's outside edge and carried low to Virat Kohli's left at second slip, who hung onto a sharp chance. Then, Mathews lost his concentration and chipped a catch to cover, his balance thrown off completely by a transfer of weight on the back foot, anticipating a shorter length.

With the light fading and the ball continuing to move, Dinesh Chandimal was repeatedly beaten on both edges during his 33-ball scrap. He was given relief shortly after 4pm local when bad light forced early stumps for the third straight day.

It was Sri Lanka's seamers that had earlier given the visitors a chance. Swing had ceased without any cloud cover. But on a grassy pitch, Lahiru Gamage and Suranga Lakmal used the prevailing seaming conditions to bowl India out for 172. Dilruwan Perera chipped in with a double-wicket over to remove Ravindra Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha, India's only set batsmen on the third day.

Resuming on 47, Cheteshwar Pujara swept a wayward delivery from Rangana Herath to move to one of his toughest Test fifties at home. The sun came out soon after, and India's overall outlook seemed brighter.

That was when Pujara erred for the first time this Test, mentally more than in technique. Overhead conditions had improved drastically, but underfoot it remained treacherous. Pujara poked at a full delivery from Gamage - with bat away from pad as opposed to his usual bat-close-to-body approach - possibly aware that swing had ceased. It created a big bat-pad gap. The ball jagged back prodigiously after pitching and uprooted off stump.

Saha, at the other end, displayed terrific awareness of which deliveries to play. He routinely let full, wide balls go, but went after fuller, wider deliveries, hitting six fours in his 29. Along with Jadeja, who also picked only full or wide deliveries to attack, carried India past 100, their first landmark of the day in a 48-run stand, the highest of the innings.

Dilruwan, introduced in the 44th over, found his offbreaks wouldn't turn. So he began under-cutting them to generate drift and open up the outside edge. There was immediate success. Dilruwan had Jadeja lbw to a ball that slid on to strike his pad before bat. Umpire Joel Wilson's not-out verdict was overturned on review. Three balls later, Saha top-edged an attempted sweep onto his forearm, which lobbed to slip.

India's tail swung freely, carrying them from 128 for 8 to 172, but as Sri Lanka's middle order showed, it may be under par.


Day 4

India 171 for 1 and 172 lead Sri Lanka 294 by 49 runs

Openers KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan capitalised on vastly improved batting conditions, both overhead and underfoot, to lead India's recovery on the fourth day in Kolkata. After Rangana Herath's third Test fifty had bulked up Sri Lanka's lead to 122, there was only one likely winner in the game. But then after Dhawan struck a 116-ball 94 and Rahul hit an unbeaten 73, there would be none it seemed.

Mohammed Shami, on his home ground, rattled through Sri Lanka's middle order to finish with four wickets, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar added two wickets on the fourth day to return 4 for 88 in bowling Sri Lanka out for 294. With Umesh Yadav also taking two wickets, this was the third time India's seamers took all ten wickets in a Test innings at home, and the first such instance since 1983-84.

Rahul and Dhawan then replied with aggression that has typified their recent Test run. Sunny overhead conditions and a surface that seemed to have settled down helped drastically.

On most pitches, a slightly fuller-than-good length is ideal. But Lahiru Gamage bowled on either side of that, dishing out three half-volleys to Rahul in his first over, which were punched for three boundaries through mid-off. He compensated with a shorter length thereafter, erring in Dhawan's wheelhouse, who cut and pulled gleefully.

In Kolkata's humidity, Dinesh Chandimal was quickly forced to turn his spinners. With no turn, it played nicely into the openers' hands. Rahul nudged and nurdled, opening and closing the bat face to accumulate runs, while Dhawan was more expansive, often using his feet to loft the ball straight.

Herath, more often than not Sri Lanka's second-innings star, was taken apart. In 29 overs, India had wiped out their deficit, and undone more than three days of diligence from Sri Lanka.

With Dhawan on 94 and the light fading, he committed the only two mistakes of his innings off the same delivery. He drove loosely at Dasun Shanaka, but an inswinger found his inside edge. He reviewed immediately, and replays showed a sharp spike as ball passed bat. India finished the fourth day at 171 for 1, with a lead of 49. Cheteshwar Pujara, who finished unbeaten on 2, could become the ninth batsman to bat on all five days of a Test.

Niroshan Dickwella and Chandimal began the fourth morning under sunny skies by counterattacking India's seamers. But like Sadeera Samarawickrama found out on the third day, hitting through the line can be fraught with risk against the moving ball because it threatens both edges. Their approach worked for the first half hour, taking Sri Lanka to 200, a handy lead of 28, but just when it seemed like Sri Lanka wrested control, India hit back. Sri Lanka's middle order tried to make contact with the ball, as opposed to allowing themselves to be beaten by playing the line. It was a ploy to move the Test along, and on a seaming surface like this, it wasn't a bad one.

Dickwella had punched, cut and pulled merrily, but was also beaten repeatedly. Shami got one to seam in from his around-the-wicket angle, then bounce and jag away - enough to find the outside edge, but not exaggerated movement to beat the edge.

Bhuvneshwar, in the next over, set up Dasun Shanaka with an outswinger well outside off. He started the next ball on a similar line, but it hooped back prodigiously to hit Shanaka, offering no shot with an intent to leave as many as he could, on the back pad. Only James Anderson is more adept at using this tactic with the swinging ball in Tests currently.

Five balls later, Chandimal was caught fishing outside his off stump against Shami. Again, the ball did just enough to find the outside edge. Suddenly, Sri Lanka had slipped to 201 for 7.

It got worse for Sri Lanka when Dilruwan Perera was given out lbw off a sharp inducker from Shami that beat his inside edge. Dilruwan, it appeared, accepted the decision and turned around to walk towards the dressing room, but asked for a review moments later. Replays showed the ball hit Dilruwan outside the line of off stump.

Herath was particularly effective with cross-batted strokes on either side of the wicket. He would frequently perch on the back foot, and depending on the line, either cut through point or pull past midwicket. Considering deliveries on a good or short length were routinely beating him with a straight bat, it was a rewarding strategy. He had moved to 67 before slicing a catch to deep backward point off Bhuvneshwar.


Day 5

India 172 & 352/8d
Sri Lanka 294 & 75/7 (target: 231)
Match drawn

Virat Kohli's 50th international century set up a fascinating conclusion to the Kolkata Test. It helped India declare at 352 for 8 and set Sri Lanka 231 to win at Eden Gardens. India's seamers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, then found conventional seam movement and reverse swing to leave Sri Lanka's middle order battling for survival in rapidly-fading light in a dramatic fifth-day finish. Somehow, Sri Lanka huffed, puffed and prevented India from blowing their house down, with three wickets in hand.

After hours lost to rain over the first two days, the match came down to the final few minutes, with Shami and Bhuvneshwar hurrying back to their mark and Sri Lanka trying to delay the game to force a draw. Eventually, the light was deemed unfit at 4.28pm local, around the same time play was called off on the fourth day.

In seven tentative overs prior to tea, Sri Lanka lost their openers Sadeera Samarawickrama and Dimuth Karunaratne, both chopping on to wide deliveries they had no reason to play at. India's quicks got the ball to move again, not prodigiously but sufficiently, up until that point. First-innings half-centurions Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne were dismissed soon after tea, opening up an out-of-form middle order.

Dinesh Chandimal and Niroshan Dickwella stalled India's momentum with a feisty 47-run stand. At one stage in that stand, India's frustration with Dickwella backing away from facing Shami boiled over to a point where the umpires needed to intervene. It ate into time, but that didn't deter India.

Sri Lanka's task was made significantly harder by Bhuvneshwar and Shami both producing varying degrees of movement. Shami went through Chandimal's defenses with a sharp inswinger, while an indipper pitched a tad shorter beat Dilruwan Perera on the outside edge, and knocked into his off stump. Three middle-order wickets in 28 balls gave India a sniff, but in the end, bad light put an end to a riveting Test.

That India were given a chance was down to Kohli's 18th Test century. Batsmen treasure centuries in such challenging conditions and Kohli's was a classy effort. Prior to lunch, he was in a battle of attrition. He survived a close call when he gloved a short delivery past the wicketkeeper to get off a pair, but left well thereafter. When Sri Lanka erred too full, he drove through the line, accumulating more than half of his runs - 22 of 41 - in the arc between cover and mid-on.

India lost R Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha to tame strokes after lunch, but Kohli remained watchful. It was only when Sri Lanka took the new ball that something changed. A half-lunge meant to help him play close to the body while defending gave way to a confident, long stride and free-flowing shots. Sri Lanka's seamers were looking for wickets, and rightly bowling full, but with hardly any swing, Kohli met the ball as early as possible as he drove and flicked merrily. He made 46 runs off 26 balls since the 80th over.

In the 83rd though, Kohli was given out lbw off the bowling of Lakmal when he missed a routine flick. He reviewed immediately, and replays showed a thin inside edge. Back came the swagger: a jig with the 12th man, cheerful smiles with Bhuvneshwar and more importantly, the full range of attacking strokes.

Sri Lanka, though, dominated the majority of the first two sessions. Suranga Lakmal was the only bowler to hit a high 130 kmph range and produce appreciable lateral movement. First, he set KL Rahul up with a few deliveries hung outside off. Rahul stayed patient, waiting for Lakmal to overpitch. Then came the big, booming inducker, attacking the pads and stumps. Rahul's balance was thrown off by the change in line as he fell over a flick, and the ball found a considerable gap between bat and pad.

He produced the ball of the morning to have Cheteshwar Pujara, who became the ninth player to bat on all five days of a Test, caught at gully. A back of a length delivery kicked up off the pitch a lot higher than Pujara expected and it lobbed over to Dilruwan at gully, who took a sharp, low catch. Four balls later, Lakmal had another good-length delivery hooping back in to beat Ajinkya Rahane's inside edge and trap him lbw for 0. With the ball moving both ways, Sri Lanka believed they had a fair chance on their own terms. India though, like they have done on several occasions in home Tests over the last few years, turned the tables drastically on the visitors.


2nd Test

Day 1

Sri Lanka 205
India 11/1 (8 ov)
India trail by 194 runs with 9 wickets remaining in the 1st innings

Treating these Tests almost as tour games for the series in South Africa, India were in no danger of the apparent disrespect to Sri Lanka, biting them on the backside instead. For the sixth straight Test between these two sides, Sri Lanka failed to reach 300, getting bowled out for 205 after winning the toss on a pretty good batting surface. Ishant Sharma, replacing the injured Mohammed Shami, presented his claim to the first XI in South Africa with disciplined bowling and three wickets while R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja reclaimed their turf with seven wickets after both went wicketless in Kolkata.

At the toss, India made it clear that they were thinking as much about South Africa as they were about Sri Lanka. The pitch, as expected, had grass on it in an attempt to prepare the hosts for their next tour. Rohit Sharma replaced a bowler in the XI just because they want him to have some game time before South Africa, where he might well be needed as the sixth batsman.

The biggest gain keeping South Africa in mind, though, might have come in the field. Since he dropped Alastair Cook in Kolkata in 2012-13 - Cook went on to score 190 from 17 when he was let off - Cheteshwar Pujara has only rarely stood at slip for India. That alone will not be the reason for his banishment from the slips, but Pujara has continued to field at slip for Saurashtra. Now fielding at first slip in Shikhar Dhawan's absence, Pujara pulled off an excellent low catch to his left, almost diving forward, to send back opener Sadeera Samarawickrama to make it 20 for 1 in the fifth over.

This was a significant catch for two reasons. India usually have about a 50% success rate at slips for quick bowlers, and given this was a tough catch, it was an odds-on favourite to go down. And slip catches for quicks will be crucial in a month's time in South Africa. Given he stays fit enough, Pujara could be an option India need to seriously think about.

In the context of this Test, too, it was an important catch. In attempting to create the hard bouncy surface, Nagpur had rolled out a pretty friendly surface to begin with. There wasn't disconcerting sideways movement in it, and it began to assist spin only later in the day. Sri Lanka had won the toss, and they had got off to a comfortable start. Samarawickrama, though, played an ill-advised drive on the up to give Ishant an early wicket.

That wicket taken, India turned the screws with tight lines and lengths. Circumspect batsmen played into their hands. Hardly any runs came in the first session, even singles involved risking a run-out, and eventually led to a big risk seven minutes before lunch to give an India spinner a wicket for the first time in this series. R Ashwin was the man who struck in the 25th over when Lahiru Thirimanne played a big sweep after scoring just nine runs off 57 balls in the best batting conditions of the match.

Like buses, one nearly brought two as Ravindra Jadeja had Dimuth Karunanaratne stumped in his first over, but it turned out he had overstepped. That capped off a session sprinkled with good fortune for Karunaratane. He was on 14 when a 26-ball spell of no runs produced a risky single where he just about beat Pujara's direct hit. Pressure not yet released, Karunaratne looked to go over mid-on a couple of overs later, but this time the overhead chance burst through Pujara's hands.

Kanrunaratne's fortune continued post lunch as he survived an extremely tight lbw call through umpire's call. His former skipper Angelo Mathews wasn't as fortunate. Having shown some intent against Ashwin, Mathews missed a straight ball from Jadeja because his bat clipped the pad on its downswing and got displaced from the line of the ball. This one too returned an umpire's call but had been given on the field.

Karunaratne and current captain Dinesh Chandimal then put together the most assured-looking batting spell of the day in a 62-run partnership. Chandimal had to take a couple of risks in the beginning - including a thick-edged six off Ashwin - but he settled in nicely. The tandem act of spinners was broken, and Umesh Yadav brought easier runs. Ashwin now began to bowl a defensive line to Chandimal, on off and middle, which was half a victory.

Just then, though, Karunaratne ran out of luck, and copped what in traditional sense was a rough lbw. From over the wicket, Ishant pitched short of a length and hit him in front. Barring appreciable seam movement, this ball had to either pitch outside leg or miss the stumps if it pitched within. The review, though, showed that the ball pitched within and shaped back in late and just enough to be clipping the off stump. This umpire's call finally went against Karunaratne.

Chandimal and Niroshan Dickwella then saw Sri Lanka through to tea with a purposeful 29-run stand but they had almost exhausted themselves in trying to maintain parity, that too just about. They might have held off wave after wave of India's charge in the first two sessions but the dam broke in the hour after tea. The batsmen's patience ran out and loose shots creeped in.

Dickwella charged down recklessly to Jadeja, was beaten in the flight, and then saw the ball didn't turn as expected to make it the worst possible outcome for him. Dasun Shanaka played for a big Ashwin offbreak, against the round-the-wicket angle and on the first day, which was recipe for the off stump to be flattened. Dilruwan Perera then fell to a non-turner from Jadeja; it had seemed only a matter of time.

With the last three for company, Chandimal decided it was time for him to dominate the scoring. With India not providing him any free runs, Chandimal went for a big reverse slog, and was trapped lbw by Ashwin. Suranga Lakmal then swung around for a chancy 17 before Ishant came back to nick him off. Ashwin immediately wrapped things up with Rangana Herath's wicket.

There was some consolation for Sri Lanka in the wicket of KL Rahul, but they were now looking at the reunion of the old firm of M Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, who have ground into dust the best of the lot at home.


Day 2

India 312 for 2 lead Sri Lanka 205 by 107 runs

That safe, warm, fuzzy, home-like feeling was back for India as their two most valuable Test batsmen in recent times reunited to keep others blissfully unaware of any dangers there might have been of the new ball, fresh bowlers or scoreboard pressure. That M Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara, now the second-most prolific second-wicket pair for India, would grind the Sri Lankan bowling was predictable, but it wasn't as straightforward as expected. Sri Lanka tested India at the start of the first two sessions, their front three bowlers arguably fared better than they did in Kolkata, but Vijay and Pujara preyed successfully on the other two, forcing the main bowlers to come back for new spells sooner than they would have liked, and then milking them. Both got hundreds, and once Vijay got out, Virat Kohli drove home the advantage further with a quick unbeaten 54 before stumps.

Dasun Shanaka and Dilruwan Perera released all the pressure built on the pair as the first 18 overs of the day went for just 36 runs. Dilruwan conceded 117 in his 21 overs, and despite a late comeback, Shanaka went at 3.3 an over. The two had bowled just nine of the first 54 overs, which meant Dinesh Chandimal had to ask Suranga Lakmal, Rangana Herath and Lahiru Gamage to keep coming back. The overs in the legs showed when Lakmal went for 21 in four overs in his mid-afternoon spell despite reverse swing on offer. By the time he took the second new ball, Lakmal had lost all sting and discipline.

The loose balls were almost absent in the first hour of the day. In particular, Vijay, making a comeback into the Test side, had to endure a testing time. As openers do, he needed a little bit of luck going his way, but his discipline otherwise was good. Pujara, at the other end, hardly made an error.

Forced to defend, defend and defend, Vijay looked to manufacture a shot. He was 19 off 60 when he skipped down to Herath, got an inside edge to offer a half chance at short leg and also a full chance for a run-out because he had stepped out too far. Wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella, who seemed to have left his station to attempt a rebound off the short leg's body, could have completed the run-out had he stayed put. As it turned out, a direct hit was needed, and Sadeera Samarawickrama missed from short leg.

In the next over, Vijay bat-padded a short-arm pull, but wide of short leg. Three overs later, Herath played with his inside and outside edges without creating a chance. Two overs later, Vijay fended at a short ball but the leading edge fell short of point. All this happened during a spell of four maiden overs, which was broken not with a rash stroke - as the Sri Lanka batsmen did on day one - but with a single to deepish mid-on.

The introduction of Shanaka brought two cover-driven boundaries for Vijay. He began with a plum half-volley, which got dispatched too. Fifty runs came in the next 13 overs, which took India to lunch. False strokes almost went out of India's game, and the field looked prone. There was another concerted effort from Sri Lanka after lunch but another 26-ball barren spell was broken calmly by singles from these calm batsmen.

As the mileage grew in those legs, the intensity dipped, the run rate increased and the milestones began to arrive. After the tough start, Vijay scored 102 off the last 135 balls he faced even as Pujara maintained a more moderate acceleration. Vijay brought up his 10th hundred, Pujara his 14th, and the pair its 10th hundred and third double hundred together.

Vijay provided Sri Lanka some respite when he top-edged a full toss he was sweeping to short fine leg, but the respite was momentary. While Pujara's gradual acceleration continued, Kohli went faster than even Vijay had been. He even stole a bye with the ball in the wicketkeeper's hand. In Test cricket. By stumps the two had added 96 in 22.3 overs with Kohli repaying the hard work done by those before him, through quick runs that should give India enough time to bowl Sri Lanka out the second time around.


Day 3

Sri Lanka 205 & 21/1 (9 ov)
India 610/6d
Sri Lanka trail by 384 runs with 9 wickets remaining

Last July, Virat Kohli had no double-centuries. He now has five. Only Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar are the Indians with more. Kohli waltzed to 213 off only 267 balls to set up a declaration and asked Sri Lanka to survive for nine overs before stumps on day three.

But the fatigue of having spent 176.1 overs in the field showed in how Sadeera Samarawickrama flashed at a wide ball and left alone a straight one. At times, teams have to tackle those dreaded days of trying to delay the declaration, and how they go about it can tell a lot about where they are at as a unit. Sri Lanka, unfortunately, were all over the place: bowlers were not accurate, fielders not alert, and plans absent. There was a buffet out there, and all bar KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane tucked in.

Kohli took the record for the most centuries for an Indian captain. Rohit Sharma ended his 13-month wait for first-class cricket and a four-year wait for a Test century in the course of a mere 160 balls. The declaration came as soon as Rohit reached the mark, making it only the third time India have had four centurions in one Test innings.

The start of the day was indicative of how the rest of it would go. Cheteshwar Pujara, 121 at the time, played out a watchful maiden - he took 23 balls to add to his overnight score - and Kohli started off with a single to long-on off his first ball. By the fourth over, it was clear Sri Lanka - understandably - were not there a 100% and that Kohli was, in his hyper-active T20 mode no less.

Kohli pushed one to long-on, Suranga Lakmal lobbed the throw to Rangana Herath, he was slow to come down, and Kohli stole a second with the ball wandering only as far as point. Fielders were under extreme pressure. Later, Herath had his pride hurt when Kohli pinched a single after hitting a firm drive straight to him at mid-off. Flustered, Herath threw anyway and conceded an overthrow. If Lakmal had reason to be upset, he didn't help matters when he forgot to make an effort to collect a throw the last ball of that over. Towards the end of the session, Niroshan Dickwella was busy applauding the wide slip for getting a hand to a late cut when Kohli raced across for a single.

Pujara continued to play the old-fashioned way. Despite the slow start he didn't look for a big shot to get going, clipping to leg for his first single of the morning. Kohli was more fluent as he kept driving either side of the wicket from wide outside off.

The seamers tried going round the wicket and Herath tried going over the wicket, but there was hardly a moment of concern for India. While Pujara and Kohli batted together on day three, the bat was beaten only five times, one of them a Dasun Shanaka yorker about seven minutes before lunch and Pujara fell seven short of 150, the ball squeezing under the bat which had covered the line and but hadn't come down in time. It was a reminder that even when things seem easy for long periods, there are still ways to get out.

A minor disappointment for India was that Rahane fell for just 2, to a loose ball from Dilruwan Perera, which was small consolation for the offspinner who has had an ordinary Test. There was nowhere to hide for him as he had to keep coming back for spell after spell, going for 202 in 45 overs despite an improved showing on Sunday.

Kohli and Rohit presented a milder version of their legendary one-day stands as they matched each other shot for shot in a 173-run stand for the fifth wicket. If Kohli welcomed Lakmal back by dancing down and hitting him over mid-off, Rohit dropped Dilruwan over mid-on. Kohli unleashed a six over long-on, bringing up his and Dilrwuan's 150. So Rohit raised two lofted boundaries off Herath. Rohit's 11-ball wait to go from 49 to 50 just before tea brought his strike-rate under 50, but Kohli, more used to these landmarks in Tests, saw no reason to slow down even as he approached his double-hundred in the final session.

Kohli fell for 213, but he gave Rohit all the time he needed to get to a hundred that might be important for his confidence going into the South Africa tour, where he might be asked to bat more often than he has at home. It is up for debate whether it is disrespectful to the opposition to wait for one man's personal milestone, but it wasn't as if India were going to run out of time or good weather to run Sri Lanka out a second time. It was apparent in Samarawickrama's two-ball innings and Sri Lanka's uncertain bid for survival in the remaining overs.


Day 4

Sri Lanka 205 & 166 (49.3 ov)
India 610/6d
India won by an innings and 239 runs

Virat Kohli will go to South Africa without having lost a Test series as a captain after India took an unassailable 1-0 lead in the series with their joint-biggest Test win and Sri Lanka's biggest defeat. As Kohli crept closer to most Test wins for India, his No. 1 matchwinner so far, R Ashwin, became the fastest man to 300 Test wickets.

It is not easy to keep turning up after you have wasted all the good fortune in one Test and then lost the second Test on the first day itself. Sri Lanka's downward slide continued into the first session of the fourth day as they gift-wrapped two wickets to India, who now need two more to take an unassailable lead in the series.

Beginning the day 384 behind and needing to bat about five sessions to save the Test, Sri Lanka were expected to go down, but the point of interest was whether they would make India - already resting players and playing on pitches that reduce home advantage in order to prepare for South Africa - work hard for their wickets. Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathews answered in the negative.

Before that, though, Dimuth Karunaratne encountered some tough luck with a freak short leg catch from M Vijay sending him back in the seventh over of the day. Having survived 61 balls, Thirimanne then scooped a wide half-volley straight to point. Mathews soon lobbed Ravindra Jadeja straight to mid-off to end his 32-ball innings. With no hope left, Dasun Shanaka threw his bat at everything, connecting well enough for a four and two sixes, but not well enough when he skied one to end his eight-ball 17. Once given a whiff, R Ashwin was too good for Dilruwan Perera and Rangana Herath, whom he sent back for ducks in the space of three balls.

Probably expecting more of the same capitulation, the first session was extended by 15 minutes to see if India could wrap the game up before lunch but Sri Lanka just about hung in to force a second session. Some of the capitulation was down to accurate and skillful bowling on a deteriorating surface, but India will be the first ones to say they have worked harder for wickets. The good bowling was evident in how Niroshan Dickwella was forced by Ishant Sharma to play at a length ball outside off in a spell that he extracted each-way reverse swing, playing with the scrambled minds of the batsmen.

Sri Lanka went into the break trailing by 260 runs. There was three-fold uncertainty at the start of the final session with two wickets standing. Would Ashwin get the one wicket he needed to reach 300? Would Sri Lanka score the 22 required to deny India their biggest Test win and the 32 required to avoid their biggest defeat? After having scored 61, and having put together 58 for the ninth wicket, Dinesh Chandimal picked out long leg perfectly when he flicked a leg-stump half-volley from Umesh Yadav. India's lead now was 240. Only one run was added to the total when an Ashwin carrom ball kissed Lahiru Gamage's off stump.



3rd Test

Day 1

India 371/4 (90 ov)
Sri Lanka

In deference to the Indian team management's wishes, there was grass on the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch, but Virat Kohli, at the toss, wished there could have been more. It certainly wasn't enough to turn New Delhi into Newlands, and India, instead of fighting for survival against snarling South African fast bowlers, settled into a typically subcontinental bat-first, bat-big pattern against a limited Sri Lanka attack, facing more spin (59 overs) than seam (31) on day one.

For most of the day, Sri Lanka had nothing to cheer as M Vijay and Virat Kohli added 283 for the third wicket, their partnership an exhibition of relentless self-control and a hunger for runs that never tipped over into greed. India rattled along at more than four an over, and as the shadows lengthened, it seemed as if India would end the day only two down.

But wristspin can do strange things, and Lakshan Sandakan, whose figures at that point read 20.5-0-109-0, sent down a deliciously-flighted wrong'un, slanting it across Vijay and asking him to reach out to drive. He didn't pick the direction of turn, groped for the ball, and missed, dragging his back foot out of the crease in the process. Niroshan Dickwella, quick and nimble, did the rest.

In his next over, Sandakan repeated the trick against Ajinkya Rahane. The line was a little wider this time, but again the ball landed on that perfect length, broke in the direction the batsman did not anticipate, and again Dickwella removed the bails with the batsman's toe on the line. India had gone from 361 for 2 to 365 for 4. Sandakan, whose bowling until that point had made Sri Lanka yearn for the control of the absent Rangana Herath, was now doing what he had been picked to do.

Still, this was India's day. At stumps, Kohli was batting on 156, his third hundred in a row and the quickest - he only took 110 balls to reach three figures - 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 utterly secure. Aside from a couple of clearly not-out lbw shouts, their dominance had gone unchallenged, and, in an indictment of the two specialist spinners, the one bowler who had come remotely close to creating chances was the part-time offspinner Dhananjaya de Silva.

On 122, Vijay drove early and sent the ball looping towards midwicket rather than the intended direction of cover; it fell just short of the diving Dinesh Chandimal. Then, on 154, he sent an uppish flick in the same direction. This time it eluded the fingertips of the debutant Roshen Silva. In between, de Silva also found Kohli's leading edge, which fell between the bowler and mid-off.

Bowling exclusively from around the wicket, de Silva ended the day with figures of 0 for 45 in 15 overs. Sandakan and Dilruwan Perera finished with a combined 3 for 207 from 44 overs.

The foundation of Kohli's innings was his supreme reading of the spinners' length, and thereafter his footwork to pounce on marginal lapses. Before lunch, for instance, he took a massive stride out to a good-length ball from Lakshan Sandakan and bisected wide mid-on and deep midwicket with a whip of his wrists. On 68, he went the other way, deep into his crease, to shorten the length of an otherwise decent Dilruwan Perera delivery and bring his wrists into play once more to find the gap between short fine leg and deep square leg.

For the quicker bowlers, a "good" length was a fairly small area on this pitch. When they strayed remotely off that area, Kohli and Vijay were quick to put the ball away. Vijay gave a good demonstration of this with a pair of boundaries in the 23rd over, off Lahiru Gamage: a cover drive, followed by a wristy on-drive, both off balls that were far from half-volleys. Kohli, meanwhile, raced from 43 to 55 courtesy three fours off one Gamage over, the pick of them an on-the-up drive through the covers.

Vijay went to tea on 101, and resumed with a flurry of attractive boundaries - an inside-out cover drive off Dilruwan, a square-drive off Gamage, a reverse-paddle off Dilruwan. He would only hit one more four after that, though, as he took the singles on offer and made sure he would do everything in his power to keep his quest for that long-yearned-for maiden double-hundred alive. This time, it would really take a good ball to get him out.

This hadn't been true of Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara, who both got off to breezy starts before falling against the run of play.

Once it became clear there was little help in this pitch for the quicks, Dhawan and Vijay were quickly on their way, driving freely on the up and hitting eight fours in the first ten overs. Sri Lanka brought on spin as early as the eighth over, and Dilruwan continued to worry his team with his inconsistent lengths, Dhawan picking up two fours behind point in his first two overs. But he grew a little greedy, and picked out deep square leg with a top-edged sweep on 23. Suranga Lakmal briefly lost the ball in the hazy atmosphere, and lost a shoe while hurriedly changing direction, but managed to hold on.

It was Dilruwan's 100th Test wicket. He might not be the most frugal of spinners, but he has the knack of taking wickets - his 100th 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 from where they left off in Nagpur, while scoring twice as quickly, and Pujara in particular was putting the bowlers through the shredder, hitting four fours in the space of three overs, including two back-foot whips off marginally short balls from Dilruwan. But this time, the partnership would only get as far as 36.

Lahiru Gamage broke it, Sri Lanka profiting from the same plan that had brought them Pujara's wicket in the second innings in Galle in late July. Then, he had flicked a full ball from Lahiru Kumara to leg gully. Now, he tucked one off his legs in the same direction, just uppishly enough for Sadeera Samarawickrama to take a sharp catch falling to his left.


Day 2

Sri Lanka 131 for 3 trail India 536 for 7 dec by 405 runs

Either side of a stop-start hour in which the focus of the Delhi Test shifted to the quality of the city's air, India extended their dominance over Sri Lanka with bat and ball. Virat Kohli brought up his sixth double-hundred and carried on to post his highest Test score, and, following a declaration in bizarre circumstances at 536 for 7, India's bowlers took over, reducing Sri Lanka to 131 for 3 in their reply. An unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 56 between Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal raised Sri Lanka's morale towards the end of the day, but they still ended it trailing by 405 runs.

Sri Lanka's fielders came out wearing face masks after lunch, and play was twice held up in smoggy conditions, with the air pollution in the vicinity of the Feroz Shah Kotla going up to "very unhealthy" levels. The two fast bowlers, Lahiru Gamage and Suranga Lakmal, went off the field midway through their overs, and eventually, with Sri Lanka struggling to put 11 players on the park, Kohli declared, signalling pointedly that his team was happy to bowl in these conditions.

When Sri Lanka began their innings, it was their offspinning allrounder Dilruwan Perera rather than Sadeera Samarawickrama - who had been off the field since being struck on the helmet at short leg on day one - who walked out to open alongside Dimuth Karunaratne.

India's fast bowlers, with a total of 536 behind them, charged in at full tilt in the half hour that remained before tea, and blasted out two wickets. Karunaratne fell to the first ball of the innings, done in by Mohammed Shami, who angled one into the left-hander from around the wicket, hit the pitch hard on a shortish length, and got it to seam away from him. Forced to play by the angle, he feathered an edge through to the keeper.

Then Ishant Sharma, going wide of the crease, did the No. 3 Dhananjaya de Silva for length. Shuffling across the crease, and neither coming forward nor going back, he jabbed uncertainly at the ball, playing well outside the line, and was struck on the back leg in front of the stumps.

In the first four overs after tea, India dropped two catches at second slip. First, it was Shikhar Dhawan moving in front of Cheteshwar Pujara at first slip, shelling a chest-high chance when Dilruwan drove away from his body at Shami. Then it was Kohli, falling to his left when Mathews poked uncertainly at an Ishant delivery that straightened in the corridor.

Dilruwan, who had looked fairly comfortable since his reprieve, timing his cover drives particularly well, then fell at the end of a 61-run stand with Mathews, sent on his way after India successfully reviewed a not-out lbw decision from Nigel Llong. A straighter one from Ravindra Jadeja struck him in line when he stepped out of the crease, and ball-tracking suggested the ball would have hit the stumps. Dilruwan, however, could have survived had he stretched out a little further; it turned out that the ball had struck his pad 2.99m from the stumps - at 3m, ball-tracking cannot reverse the umpire's decision.

Mathews looked extremely shaky in the early part of his innings, camping deep in his crease and poking away from his body on numerous occasions. In an effort to bowl fuller at him, however, the fast bowlers occasionally overpitched, and he put those balls away, a straight drive off Ishant particularly eye-catching. Slowly, he grew in confidence, enough to greet R Ashwin's belated introduction - he came on in the 28th over - by hitting him for successive sixes to bring up his fifty.

In fading light, Mathews and Chandimal survived a testing period before stumps, against Shami's reverse-swing and the accuracy of Jadeja and Ashwin. With a few overs under his belt, Ashwin began looking particularly dangerous, finding the right pace for this pitch and threatening both edges from over and around the wicket. Bad light brought the examination to a halt three minutes from time, but it will begin all over again when Sri Lanka resume their innings.

India began the day's play on 371 for 4, and Sri Lanka, having picked up two quick wickets late on day one, may have harboured some hope of clawing their way back into the Test match. If they did, Kohli and Rohit Sharma quelled it with a fifth-wicket partnership of 135. It came to an end off what was to be the second-last ball before lunch, when Rohit fell for 65, bottom-edging a square-cut to the keeper off Lakshan Sandakan.

India lost two more wickets after lunch. Gamage got one with the first ball after the first pollution break, R Ashwin reaching out at a wide one without moving his feet and steering it to gully - it wasn't the first time he had been dismissed in this manner in the recent past.

Then, in the midst of all the breaks in play, Sri Lanka finally found a way past Kohli. It was Sandakan's fourth wicket, another good ball amidst an otherwise inconsistent mix, and another reminder of the talent that Sri Lanka will need to nurture with care. Kohli went back to a flat one bowled from left-arm around, perhaps playing the trajectory rather than the length. It skidded on - slow-motion replays indicated it may have been a flipper - and rapped him on the back pad, in front of the stumps. Kohli reviewed, but the ball didn't have far to travel, and ball-tracking suggested it would have hit a good chunk of leg stump.

If the 87 runs Kohli scored on Sunday didn't come with quite the same ease as his first 156 on Saturday, it had little to do with Sri Lanka's bowling, which remained unthreatening and inconsistent. Kohli, instead, had to fight his own body, which was beginning to show the toll taken by scoring three successive Test hundreds. A stiff back slowed him down between wickets, and brought India's physio onto the field, but Kohli just kept batting.

Sri Lanka persisted with spin for the first six overs of the morning, hoping for Sandakan to conjure up a wicket or two, but neither he nor Dilruwan made any impact on the pair in the middle. Rohit, on 6 overnight, took no time settling in, and launched Sandakan over long-off in the fourth over of the day before picking up two more fours in the next two overs.

On came the second new ball, and Kohli clipped Lakmal's first ball to the midwicket boundary. It turned out to be the first of six fours - the pick of them a Rohit pull off Gamage, hit just wide of mid-on - in six overs from which Lakmal and Gamage conceded 32. Kohli soon swept past the 200 mark, getting there with a pulled double off Lakmal, after which Rohit reached his fifty with a straight six off Dilruwan.


Day 3

India 536/7d
Sri Lanka 356/9 (130 ov)
Sri Lanka trail by 180 runs with 1 wicket remaining in the 1st innings

Having kept it locked up all through this tour, Sri Lanka finally reminded everyone of the batting quality they possess, as centuries from Dinesh Chandimal and, at long last, Angelo Mathews helped them avoid the follow-on at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Given how long they were kept on the field, India would probably not have enforced the follow-on anyway. The Chandimal-Mathews partnership alone consumed 79.1 overs.

And yet, once they found a way past that stand - having missed numerous opportunities to do so previously - India reasserted their dominance. R Ashwin, underbowled for most of the innings, led the way, taking three wickets on a pitch that only gave the spinners modest assistance, and the other three bowlers made valuable incisions too. Wriddhiman Saha, on a day when India's catchers kept letting down their bowlers, made three quality grabs behind the wicket.

Having got through the first session wicketless, and nearly doing so again in the second, Sri Lanka lost wickets in a clump, sliding from 317 for 5 and ending the day at 356 for 9, with Chandimal still at the crease on an outstanding unbeaten 147.

Right since his belated introduction on the second afternoon - he only came on in the 28th over - Ashwin had worried Mathews with his round-the-wicket angle, getting the ball to dip and land on an awkward length that made it difficult to deal with his natural variation. Some balls turned in, others carried on with the angle. The dismissal arrived courtesy the one that kept going across Mathews, who sent a thin edge through to Saha, who made a difficult chance look easy.

It was a moment of joy for Ashwin, and perhaps one of vindication too, for this was only his 19th over of the innings. Ravindra Jadeja, at that point, had bowled 34, Ishant Sharma 23, and Mohammed Shami 22. Perhaps the presence of two right-hand batsmen at the crease for such a long period had made Virat Kohli reluctant to turn to his offspinner, but again he had shown his ability to threaten both edges of the bat.

As always, Ashwin began finding more bite after getting a few overs under his belt and working out what pace to bowl at, with what trajectory. On this Kotla pitch, he began delivering his offbreaks with far more overspin than sidespin. This overspin, which led to dip and bounce, sent Roshen Silva on his way for a duck on debut, caught bat-pad. Two wickets, two right-handers. The next one was a left-hander, Niroshan Dickwella, who lost his off stump while trying to cut Ashwin's round-the-wicket arm ball.

Chandimal added a brisk 61 with Sadeera Samarawickrama, who came out at No. 6, having been off the field since being hit on the helmet at short leg on day one. Having hit seven fours in an attractive 33, however, Samarawickrama edged Ishant while chasing at a widish ball, and Saha dived to his right to take a spectacular low one-hander. A little later, another dive to his right sent back Suranga Lakmal, who edged an away-seamer from Shami.

Jadeja grabbed the ninth wicket, typically an lbw as the batsman, Lahiru Gamage, propped forward and played for non-existent turn.

Given how quickly the lower middle order disintegrated, India may have wondered what the match situation might have been had they held on to all their chances.

In all, they let Mathews off three times. Virat Kohli had shelled him on 6 on the second day, at second slip, and Rohit Sharma repeated the trick when he was on 98: at the same position, off the same bowler, Ishant, when Mathews made a similar mistake, poking away from his body without moving his feet. This was a straightforward chance, at chest height, when India had just taken the second new ball.

Then, on 104, Mathews looked to hit Jadeja over mid-off, but didn't get the elevation he desired. Vijay Shankar, substituting for M Vijay, timed his jump well and got his fingers to the ball at full stretch, but failed to hold on.

It was that kind of innings for Mathews, an innings defined by struggle. In the first hour, he was beaten more than once by Shami, who bowled a spell of testing line, the odd bouncer, and just a touch of seam movement, all at high pace. Camped on the back foot against Ishant Sharma, he reached out for full balls and skewed and sliced them squarer than intended.

As the session wore on, Ishant packed the leg side and peppered him with short balls. Perhaps he overdid it, but there were still a few awkward moments, such as a pull that flashed narrowly wide of the man at short fine leg.

But Mathews grew in assurance thereafter, utilising all his know-how to keep India's bowlers out, but it was seldom pretty. He was quick to punish anything on his legs, and targeted Ashwin for his rare flashes of adventure, such as a delicate lap-sweep to go from 83 to 87. Otherwise, it was sheer, stubborn resistance.

Like Mathews, Chandimal was troubled by Shami early on. A short ball from wide of the crease smacked him on the glove, and three balls later he was a little slow getting on the front foot to a full ball in the channel, the resultant edge falling short of first slip. At one point, the smoggy atmosphere caused him some difficulty too, bringing the physio onto the field. Otherwise, he looked composed as he settled into the kind of defensive innings he has now become adept at playing - think SSC, 2016, or Abu Dhabi, a couple of months ago.

Occasionally, he unfurled an eye-catching attacking shot - such as a cover drive off Shami or a twinkle-toed whip against the turn off Jadeja - but otherwise it was all vigilant defence as he moved to his third successive half-century of the series, looking increasingly secure.

After lunch, he picked up his scoring too, as the bowlers' workloads began occasionally to tell on their accuracy. Ishant dropped short a couple of times, and Chandimal put him away to the point and fine leg boundaries, but the shot of his innings, Sri Lanka's innings, and perhaps even the match, came off Shami. It wasn't a bad ball, banged in close to off stump, extracting a good amount of bounce, but Chandimal, feet off the ground, got off his feet and punched it to the cover boundary.


Day 4

India 536/7d & 246/5d
Sri Lanka 373 & 31/3 (16 ov, target 410)

Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja ripped through Sri Lanka's top order after India set them 410 to win the Delhi Test or survive the best part of four sessions to save it. Bad light brought the fourth day to an end with a theoretical 13 overs remaining, with Sri Lanka struggling at 31 for 3.

Sri Lanka came within six balls of going to stumps just one down. Nigel Llong had a long look at his light meter before motioning Jadeja to bowl, and he duly picked up two wickets in what turned out to be the last over of the day. First, Dimuth Karunaratne stretched forward to defend a topspinner that dipped on him, and nicked to the keeper, playing for non-existent turn. Three balls later, the nightwatchman Suranga Lakmal made a mess of his attempt to block a stump-to-stump delivery, cue-ending the ball into the ground and back onto his stumps.

Shami had given India their first breakthrough with an exhibition of searing pace and accuracy. He sent down two bouncers that reared dangerously towards Sadeera Samarawickrama's head. The batsman evaded the first one, falling onto the floor while swaying out of line, but couldn't avoid the second, ball kissing his glove and bouncing off his right shoulder to gully.

The effort of those back-to-back bouncers in the Delhi smog quickly told on Shami; he vomited and went off the field thereafter. Lakmal had shown similar symptoms while bowling in the morning session, when Sri Lanka again came out with a number of their fielders wearing face masks.

There was no such discomfort for India's batsmen in their second innings; three of them scored half-centuries, with the declaration arriving as soon as Rohit Sharma brought up his in the 10th over after tea.

There were two major partnerships in India's innings. Shikhar Dhawan and Cheteshwar Pujara added 77 for the third wicket at just under four-and-a-half an over, and Virat Kohli and Rohit added 90 for the fifth at just under a run-a-ball. Kohli and Rohit only hit eight fours between them, but picked up a steady stream of singles and twos against spread-out fields as Sri Lanka waited for a declaration. Kohli holed out in a bid for quick runs, soon after reaching his fifty and passing 600 runs for the series.

Having secured a 163-run first-innings lead in the sixth over of the morning, India came out with clear intent to score quickly. M Vijay, normally so watchful outside off stump, repeatedly looked to drive the new ball on the up, and, having hit two fours in this manner, nicked Lakmal behind on 9.

Instead of Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane walked in at No. 3, having scored 4, 0, 2 and 1 in his four previous innings in the series. Rahane likes the ball coming on to the bat, so perhaps this was an effort to have him face a harder, newer ball than normal. The experiment didn't come off. He struggled to middle the ball in his 37-ball innings, as a control percentage of 64 would suggest, and survived two close lbw shouts before holing out while looking to hit Dilruwan Perera over long-on.

Pujara was the freer-scoring batsman in his third-wicket partnership of 77 with Dhawan. He came out full of urgent intent and was typically twinkle-toed against the spinners, stepping out frequently, working the ball into gaps, often calling "two" loudly as soon as he had hit the ball.

He hit successive fours off Dilruwan early in his innings, an off-drive and a square-cut, and went to lunch batting on 17 off 15 balls. He found the boundary three more times after lunch before he was caught at slip off Dhananjaya de Silva, playing for turn when the ball went on with the around-the-wicket angle.

As in the second innings in Kolkata, Dhawan took his time initially and switched gears effortlessly to reduce the gap between runs and balls. It took him 63 balls to hit his first four, a late-cut off Dilruwan, but the boundaries flowed thereafter, as he stepped out against the quicks, went over the top against the spinners and, as always, scored heavily square of the wicket on the off side. As in Kolkata, he seemed set for a century when he was dismissed, beaten by Sandakan's turn when he danced down the pitch and went for a big hit.

In the morning, Dinesh Chandimal HAD extended his score from an overnight 147 to a career-best 164 before becoming the last man out in Sri Lanka's first innings. He added 30 for the last wicket with Lakshan Sandakan, who ended up unbeaten on 0 off 20 balls. The No. 11 was beaten multiple times by Ishant Sharma and Shami, but defended stoutly when the line was on the stumps.

Chandimal went for his shots, and picked up three fours in the morning, two of them with cuts and uppercuts. That shot, in the end, cost him his wicket, as he sliced Ishant straight to Dhawan at third man.


Day 5

India 536/7d & 246/5d
Sri Lanka 373 & 299/5 (target: 410)
Match drawn

If their two most experienced batsmen led Sri Lanka's first-innings fight, their fifth-day heroes were two newer faces. Dhananjaya de Silva scored his third hundred in only his 11th Test, and Roshen Silva made an unbeaten 74 on debut, their efforts leading Sri Lanka to a fighting draw at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

It was a heartening result, given that Sri Lanka came here right after suffering their worst-ever defeat in the second Test in Nagpur. Neither Dhananjaya nor Roshen played that game, and their displays here may have made fans back home wonder why the former isn't yet a settled member of Sri Lanka's top order and why it took 103 first-class games for the latter to convince the selectors of his ability.

India took only two wickets on the fifth day, of Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal, their two first-innings centurions. They never once picked up two wickets back-to-back: Chandimal and Dhananjaya added 112, Dhananjaya and Roshen 58 before the former retired hurt, and Roshen and Niroshan Dickwella an unbroken 94.

It was a reflection of how well Sri Lanka batted, but also of how little help there was for either seam or spin on one of the most benign fifth-day tracks seen in India in recent times.

With five overs left for tea, India were given a small opening when Dhananjaya walked off the field, having struggled through most of the second session with a thigh injury that inhibited his footwork and running between the wickets. They took the second new ball in the last over before tea, and began the final session hoping it would give them some much-craved-for bite and bounce.

But Roshen, whose nimble feet and unhurried manner were reminiscent of Sri Lanka's current batting coach Thilan Samaraweera, was just as assured against India's quicks as he had against their spinners. A Mohammed Shami lifter hit him on the gloves and he inside edged Ishant Sharma into his box, but otherwise he wasn't troubled, as he ignored anything wide of off stump and ducked or swayed to avoid the short ones. India brought back spin, and Roshen immediately brought up his fifty, stepping out and driving Ravindra Jadeja to the cover boundary.

India had a greater chance of dismissing the impulsive Niroshan Dickwella at the other end, and the wicketkeeper-batsman, playing all his shots despite the match situation, gave them one clear-cut chance with the final hour looming. Stepping out of his crease to Jadeja, he missed one that hit the rough outside his off stump but refused to turn. The ball beat Wriddhiman Saha too, and thudded into his chest rather than settle in his gloves.

Dickwella kept playing his shots, which led to a couple of hairy moments - a missed sweep out of the rough off Jadeja, a top-edged sweep off R Ashwin - but nothing resulting in a chance, and the players eventually shook hands with 35 minutes left of the last hour.

Upright and wristy, Dhananjaya looked assured against spin, his game built around the extremes of sitting on the back foot - which was well suited to the slowness of the surface - or dancing down the pitch, and he only rarely took the middle path of stretching forward in defence. Despite the fact that saving the game was Sri Lanka's only realistic aim, he wasn't reluctant to play his shots.

He hit 16 boundaries in all. Some were both safe and eye-catching - such as successive pulls off Ishant Sharma in the first session, or a back-foot punch off Ashwin that moved him to 96 - and others risky but well-controlled - such as his sweeps, both square and fine, off the stumps. But even if he did occasionally get himself in trouble - Ashwin put down a stinging return catch when he was on 110 - the bowlers seldom hurried or wrong-footed him.

There weren't too many balls from the spinners that turned and bounced with any real venom. There were perhaps only two in the morning session, both bowled by Jadeja on his 29th birthday, and on both occasions he overstepped the crease. One transgression went unnoticed, and Mathews departed in the sixth over of the day. Joel Wilson referred the other to the third umpire, who judged what seemed an extremely tight call in the batting team's favour, and reprieved Chandimal in the fourth over before lunch.

Jadeja set Mathews up beautifully. His four previous balls were flat, quick ones on a perfect length, alternating between a roughly middle-and-leg line and an off-stump line. Mathews defended all four off the front foot. The next one was dangled a little slower and wider. Not reading the change in pace, Mathews went too early into his defensive stride, and ended up reaching for the ball, away from his body, and edged to slip.

Chandimal's lucky escape came off a ripper that spun from leg stump, beat his outside edge, and hit middle stump, having drifted in and opened him up completely. That ball apart, Chandimal looked quietly fluent, just as in the first innings, his control percentage of 90 indicative of both his own rhythm and the lack of devil in the pitch.

Eventually, he was dismissed when a spinner beat him in the air. It was a lovely bit of flight from Ashwin in the eighth over after lunch, the ball dipping on Chandimal as he stepped out, stranding him a long way from the pitch of the ball. He reached for it, attempted a desperate leg-side whip, but only succeeded in leaving a big gap for the ball to turn through and peg back off stump.

India were right on top, with five wickets down and more than half of the day still left to play, but if there wasn't too much experience left in Sri Lanka's line-up, there definitely was plenty of quality.
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1st ODI

India 112 (38.2/50 ov)
Sri Lanka 114/3 (20.4/50 ov)
Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets (with 176 balls remaining)

Lesser-skilled teams' best chances of competing are in conditions that skew the balance towards the bowlers - spin or seam. In 26 ODIs in 2017, most of which were played on flat surfaces, Sri Lanka managed to win just four. But in Dharamsala, Sri Lanka's seamers, led by Suranga Lakmal, used swinging and seaming conditions to rip through a tentative India batting line-up for 112, setting up a seven-wicket rout that also snapped their 12-game losing streak in ODIs.

When Lakmal finished with figures of 10-4-13-4 to leave India at 29 for 7, it didn't look like the innings would last 38.2 overs. But MS Dhoni shepherded the tail with a calculated 65 to prevent India from the ignominy of falling to the lowest ODI total. Even though India started well in the defense, their total was decidedly under-par as Sri Lanka hunted down the target with 29.2 overs to spare.

In the fresh mountain air of Dharamsala, Sri Lanka's opening bowlers, Lakmal and Angelo Mathews, repeatedly hit the perfect length: just fuller than good. On a surface with sufficient but not exaggerated lateral movement, that length becomes even harder to negate. Batsmen are indecisive with their footwork and therefore shot selection.

Shikhar Dhawan prefers to dominate bowlers from the outset, particularly with cross-batted strokes. He hung back to Mathews, who angled full deliveries away from his leaden-footed drives. Then, Mathews swerved one back into Dhawan to beat his inside edge, striking him in front of middle. Sri Lanka had umpire Simon Fry's not-out decision overturned on review to complete the perfect one-two play.

Two overs on, Lakmal hit that ideal length again but with a quicker pace. Rohit Sharma played the line but enough away seam movement kissed the outside edge. This time, Sri Lanka had umpire Anil Chaudhary's decision overturned.

Most of India's shots thereafter were borne by an intent to weather that testing period. That resulted in two runs in the first five overs and 11 in the first 10, the lowest in a match involving two Full Members in the last five years.

That also ensured Sri Lanka didn't need to alter their own approach, as they jagged and nipped the ball both ways. All of Sri Lanka's first seven wickets were a result of beating the batsmen on the inside or outside edge. Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were caught behind the wicket off outside edges. Dinesh Karthik fell over a flick and Shreyas Iyer chopped on via the inside edge.

Of late, Dhoni often consumes too many balls while starting his innings, but India's dire situation fit his template today. He charged down off his first ball, displaying an intent and a clear plan to negate the swing that no other batsman had.

One of Dhoni's biggest - and well-documented - assets is his productivity with the tail. In Kuldeep Yadav's company, he chose only the errant deliveries to score. He used his typical bottom-hand power to place the ball particularly into gaps through cover, midwicket and backward square leg. He eventually sliced a lofted drive off Thisara Perera to be last man out, not before making close to 60% of India's runs from No. 6.

With India's opening bowlers also generating appreciable seam movement both ways, it seemed like Dhoni had carried India not too far away from a fighting score. Danushka Gunathilaka, frustrated by the ball repeatedly going past his outside edge, attempted a straight heave off Jasprit Bumrah and was caught behind, the ball missing his intended area by 180 degrees. Such were the margins of error on this pitch.

In his next over, Bumrah also had Upul Tharanga caught at gully, but replays indicated he overstepped. When Bhuvneshwar Kumar got Lahiru Thirimanne to chop on three balls later, India not only hoped, but believed. They had, after all, produced three wicket-taking balls in 37 balls on a surface that was offering plenty of assistance.

Tharanga, though, quelled their belief with a flurry of sweetly-timed strokes either side of the wicket. India had to set attacking fields, leaving massive holes in the outfield. Tharanga unleashed several cover drives en route to his 49 before edging to first slip. Angelo Mathews and Niroshan Dickwella then added an unbroken 49 to carry Sri Lanka home, leaving India having to come back from a 1-0 deficit for the second consecutive three-match series.


2nd ODI

India 392/4 (50 ov)
Sri Lanka 251/8 (50 ov)
India won by 141 runs

Rohit Sharma's template in ODIs isn't complicated: watchful in the first 10 overs, accumulation in the next 30 overs, and a belligerent assault in the last 10. Sri Lanka knew all about it, having conceded 264 to him in Kolkata three years ago, but he reminded them again in terrific batting conditions in Mohali. He razed his way to his third double-century in ODIs to launch India to 392 for 4, helping India level the series with a 141-run drubbing.

Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer gave Rohit able company with rapid half-centuries, as India posted their 100th 300-plus total in ODIs. Angelo Mathews led Sri Lanka's losing battle with a fighting hundred, his second in ODIs, but just like AB de Villiers' 114 against India in Gwalior in 2010, it didn't take much away from a stunning double-hundred.

Given Mohali's large boundaries, Sri Lanka's response to Rohit was to take pace off the ball and try bowling short. It didn't work. Sri Lanka's end-overs specialists Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep then tried firing in wide yorkers. It didn't work. Straight yorkers? Nope. Low full-tosses resulted in sixes over midwicket and square leg. As the level of intimidation went up, Sri Lanka grew increasingly helpless.

So frenetic was the pace of the final third of Rohit's innings that he scored more than half of his unbeaten 208 in the last 10 overs. He had nudged his way to his 16th ODI century by the end of the 40th, and then went on to thump 107 more off his final 37 balls. He scored 144, close to 70% of his runs, square on either side of the wicket.

India scored 147 in the last 10 overs. Nuwan Pradeep came close to Mick Lewis' record of most runs conceded in an ODI, but finished seven runs short, ending at 10-0-106-0.

Confidence is arguably the most influential factor in sport. Any team is bound to be tentative after slumping to 29 for 7 in their previous game. So when India were put in to bat in hazy conditions, Rohit and Dhawan put away their attacking instincts, allowing Sri Lanka's in-form seamers to win the first Powerplay: they scored just 33 in the first 10 overs.

Apart from their ability to steal singles with soft hands in the Powerplay, Rohit and Dhawan are also proficient because they prefer different lengths. Dhawan sits back and waits for bowlers to err on the short side, and Rohit favours the fuller length when they compensate. For 10 overs, Sri Lanka found the perfect length in-between.

As fatigue crept in and new bowlers took time to settle, they erred too often. India's run-rate rose from a little over three to above five in a few overs thereafter. Dhawan was particularly productive square on either side of the wicket, hitting nine fours before shovelling a flick to midwicket off Sachith Pathirana.

After cruising to fifty, Rohit chose only the errant deliveries to attack. But India's run-rate remained lofty due to Iyer's belligerence. After moving quietly to 11 off 15, he chipped down the track off Pathirana and hit him over mid-on despite not getting to the pitch of the ball. Sri Lanka changed their length, and Iyer pounced on width.

Iyer led the charge after Rohit's ton. He displayed the strong bottom-handed power that has almost become a requisite in modern ODI batting. He also showed off his touch, guiding and scything balls either side of point. He eventually holed out for 88 off 70 balls, an innings that featured nine fours and two sixes, in the the 46th over, but the damage had been done.

The chase fizzled out early, as Sri Lanka labored their way to 41 for 2 in the first 10 overs. Upul Tharanga slapped a catch to cover and Danushka Gunathilaka was strangled down the leg side. Lahiru Thirimanne's horror form continued, managing just 21 runs off 34 balls before attempting a premeditated reverse-sweep off debutant Washington Sundar, who struck off his ninth ball in ODIs.

Sri Lanka's middle order, led by Mathews, batted with intent and aggression. Niroshan Dickwella and Asela Gunaratne contributed brisk cameos, but were dismissed trying to keep up with an asking rate that soared past 10 runs per over with more than half the innings remaining.

When he could, Mathews stepped out to hit over the in-field. When he couldn't, he used his wrists and bottom hand to wriggle out runs on the leg side. He hit 72 of his unbeaten 111 on the leg side, accounting for 65% of his runs.



3rd ODI

Sri Lanka 215 (44.5/50 ov)
India 219/2 (32.1/50 ov)
India won by 8 wickets (with 107 balls remaining)

Sri Lanka were spun around in Visakhapatnam so starkly that, if they were a cartoon character, they would have seen little Kuldeep Yadavs and Yuzvendra Chahals dancing in a circle over their heads. Then along came Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan to knock them out cold. Chases of 216 are often one-sided and when it was done, India emerged with their eighth straight series victory in ODIs - matching a world-beating Australian side in the 2000s and second only to the legendary West Indians in the 1980s.

Poor Upul Tharanga watched it all happen - though the temptation to find a quiet corner to bang his head against the wall must have been strong - having made a virtually flawless 95 off 82 balls. As opener, he gave his team a rapid start, hitting five successive boundaries in the ninth over. As senior player, he did all he could to bat as long as possible. While he was in the middle, Sri Lanka had a good chance at scoring over 300 and securing their first series win in India. As soon as he fell - stumped by an absolute pearler from Kuldeep - a collapse ensued. There were eight wickets for only 55 runs.

Now, there were no demons in the pitch. But the same could not be said of a certain 23-year old in only his first year of international cricket. India waited until the end of the Powerplay to deploy Kuldeep. And his control of line and length, through a 10-over spell that cost only 42 runs and reaped three wickets, was quite remarkable. The standout though was his bowling slow through the air, backing himself to beat batsmen with dip and drift.

His faith wasn't misplaced. Tharanga, getting into all the right positions until that point, was drawn into a cover drive. He had every reason to play the shot, with the ball wide outside off and nicely tossed up. But the thing dipped, then turned sharply enough to beat the bat of a man five short of a hundred. MS Dhoni did the rest.

Then there was Chahal, who isn't quite as big a turner of the ball, but is fast becoming India's best weapon against an attacking batsman. Earlier in the season, he made Glenn Maxwell spontaneously combust by bowling wide of his reach. The same ploy worked against Sadeera Samarawickrama, brought in for this game at the expense of Lahiru Thirimanne.

The swap was, at first, working splendidly with Sri Lanka's second wicket contributing 121 runs at 6.42 per over and Samarawickrama prospering by coming down the track every second or third ball he faced from the spinner. As wedded as he was to that gameplan, his shot selection was very good; nothing rash, or against the turn. In fact, he was one of the few batsmen who picked the googly, once smashing Kuldeep to the long-off boundary and looking a million dollars doing it. But against Chahal, much like others before him, he went after a wide one, without reaching the pitch of it, and was caught off a bit of an outside edge for 42.

A series decider, and one played against a team which owns its backyard the same way as Mitchell Starc owned James Vince's off stump, requires each member of the XI to stand up and make themselves count. Sri Lanka, however, were stuck with nine men who could not get past a score of 20.

That made life quite easy for India's batsmen. Even after they lost captain Rohit Sharma to a peach of a googly from Akila Dananjaya in the fourth over of the chase.

Dhawan found fluency pulling Suranga Lakmal wide of mid-on. Matching the audacity of that shot were cover-driven fours off perfectly good length balls and a square cut so brutal it zipped through the hands of short point before he knew what was happening. He finished 100 not out and in the process became the second-fastest Indian to 4000 ODI runs, behind Virat Kohli.

More pleasing for India would have been Iyer's display. His 65 off 63 did include moments where he was squared up by a good outswinger, but when the ball was close to his body or short and even a little wide of off stump, he flicked and cut ever so well. His use of the bottom hand to dominate spin bears mention as well. In the 18th over, when Sri Lanka brought Dananjaya, their best source of a wicket, in for a new spell, Iyer shuffled back and across to a good-length delivery aimed at the stumps, and dispatched it with a straight bat through midwicket.

A team displaying strength at home is the norm in all kinds of sport, but a stretch of 15 successive bilateral series, across formats, without a single loss, is still rather astonishing. This is India's position in world cricket right now, brimming with talent that knows how to make the most of sub-continent conditions. Remarkably, they come into the side well equipped for top-flight cricket. Three of their four match-winners on Sunday, for example, were less than two years old at international level.