India beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets
Collected Photo
India took the field for their 600th Test and left with a historic victory over Sri Lanka. Powered by Manav Suthar’s 10 wickets, Shubman Gill’s side defeated the hosts by 165 runs in the Galle Test to take a 1 0 lead in the two-match series.
India had already set up the victory on the previous day. Sri Lanka began the final day at 84 for 4 and needed another 288 runs to win. The hosts needed something special on the final day to save the match.
But none of that happened. Suthar’s spin magic dismantled Sri Lanka’s batting lineup on the final day. Suthar took six wickets for 55 runs in the second innings. He had taken four wickets for 76 runs in the first innings.
Dhananjaya de Silva and Sonal Dinusha kept Sri Lanka’s fight alive on the final day. De Silva scored 59 before being dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja.
Dinusha then held one end and gave Sri Lanka hope of an unlikely victory. His innings ended on 84 after hitting eight fours and one six. Suthar dismissed him.
After Dinusha’s dismissal, Suthar needed little time to finish Sri Lanka’s innings. He dismissed Prabath Jayasuriya and Lahiru Kumara in the same over. In the following over, he bowled Nuantha to bring the match to an end. The hosts lost their final four wickets for seven runs and suffered a heavy defeat.
Suthar became the youngest Indian bowler to take 10 wickets in a Test outside India. After the victory, India captain Gill said, “He is bowling brilliantly. In the first match he played in India and in this match too, I felt he was a very promising player. He is proving that he can play for India for a long time. We won our 600th Test and everyone in the team is very happy.”
After the defeat, de Silva said, “It is not easy to bat in the fourth innings in Galle. Rahul and Padikkal converted good starts into big innings and put pressure on us. They won the toss and scored runs while we lost wickets in our batting and from there everything started going badly.”
Alongside Suthar, another young star, Devdutt Padikkal, was a hero of India’s victory in the milestone Test. Padikkal was named Player of the Match after scoring 167 and 44 in the two innings of his third Test.
