Shreyas Iyer impressed on his recent reputation in the middle order for India with another sterling knock against an atypically inspired Sri Lankan bowling attack on the opening day of the second Test at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday (March 12).
Iyer, who has had a fine run with the bat since his entry into the Test side recently, came up with a belligerent 92 from 98 deliveries with ten boundaries and four sixes. Notwithstanding, Rohit Sharma’s India could only muster 252 runs at the end of their first innings in an extended middle session.
Sri Lanka should have ended this resistance a tad earlier, but they dropped Iyer on a couple of occasions. But with Rishabh Pant taking a short-format approach, they didn’t lose too much ground. Lasith Embuldeniya (3-94) and Praveen Jayawickrama (3-81) gave Sri Lanka the temporary stronghold in the contest. Once the ball got soft, batting became easier for the home side who cashed in on the looseners from Embuldeniya and Jayawickrama. Both Pant and Iyer’s counterattack messed up the lengths of Sri Lanka’s bowlers but the ‘keeper fell early after the tea break for 39 before Iyer took control.
However, there is little or no reason to believe that the Sri Lankan batting order will survive the remainder of the evening without losing some wickets along the way, especially since the famed twilight hour is going to move the ball around far more than it did in the earlier sessions. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami should have plenty to feed on, and once the dew settles in, the three spinners in the side will have their say too as the ball will begin to go with the arm more than grip and turn.
Sri Lanka’s spinners did well to check India’s progress on a turning wicket in Bengaluru reducing the hosts to 93 for 4 in the opening session. After losing the openers early in the session, India were revived by Hanuma Vihari and Virat Kohli, who added 47 runs before falling in successive overs on the brink of the Lunch.
Earlier, Mayank Agarwal fell to a bizarre run-out; there was an appeal for a leg-before that was turned down after which Mayank set out for a single that wasn’t reciprocated by the skipper Rohit at the other end. The skipper was then set up as the man was brought in from midwicket to second slip who ended up with the skipper’s catch. On his first ball - a flighted one -against Embuldeniya, Rohit lunged into the forward defence and got an outside edge as Dhananjaya de Silva stayed low to take a good catch. Suranga Lakmal bowled unchanged in the first hour with six overs and three maidens and didn’t give away much.
The surface wasn’t the easiest to bat on with turn in the first session. Vihari then ground it out in the middle punishing anything short and stitching a handy stand with Kohli. Sri Lanka were disciplined in the first hour with the pacers extracting good movement. Just when the stand between Vihari and Kohli was building, the former was given out leg-before. On review, the ball was found to be missing the stumps as he survived.
Jayawickrama, who didn’t make the greatest of starts, however, brought the breakthrough that Sri Lanka were looking for. He got one to spit and turn as Vihari got an edge that was taken by the ‘keeper. Pant came out attacking but could’ve been caught off his third ball, but Lakmal put him down in the deep. Dimuth Karunaratne then brought on the offspinner to bowl to the left-handed Pant, but got Kohli instead with one that turned and kept low.
Source: Cricbuzz
