Colombo, Aug 27: Young Sri Lanka batter Sonal Dinusha stole the show with his gritty knocks in both the innings as the hosts forced India to settle for a draw
in the second Test on Thursday (August 27).
India had Sri Lanka on the ropes, enforced the follow-on and needed only four wickets to complete a series-clinching victory on day five. Yet, by the time the final day of the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club ended, the visitors had been denied the win by a stubborn Sri Lankan resistance led by Dinusha.
Shubman Gill-led Indian side had dominated the Test for long periods, but failed to deliver the decisive punch when it mattered most. Hosts Sri Lanka, asked to follow on after being bowled out for 290 in their first innings in response to India's imposing 503/9 declared, eventually held on to earn a draw. India nevertheless won the two-Test series 1-0, having beaten Sri Lanka by 165 runs in the opening Test at Galle.
The result, however, will leave Indian team management with plenty to ponder as the win here was for the taking.
India had the advantage - and let it slip
India's position could hardly have been stronger when they enforced the follow-on. Devdutt Padikkal's 117 and Dhruv Jurel's unbeaten 115 had powered India to 503/9 declared, before their bowlers dismissed Sri Lanka for 290 to secure a 213-run first-innings advantage.
Sonal Dinusha's 103 had prevented Sri Lanka from collapsing completely in the first innings, but India still had more than enough time to force a result. Gill chose to send the hosts back in immediately, a decision that made sense given the weather interruptions and the need to maximise India's bowling time.
Sri Lanka, though, refused to fold.
Pasindu Sooriyabandara's 92 and Kamindu Mendis' 55 transformed the second innings. By the end of the fourth day, Sri Lanka had erased the first-innings deficit and moved 16 runs ahead at 229/6. Rain then curtailed India's pursuit.
But the real test was still to come.
Indian spinners lose their bite
With Sri Lanka's lower order digging in on the fifth morning, India's spin attack increasingly looked toothless.
The surface was expected to offer the spinners enough assistance as the Test entered its final stages, but India struggled to turn pressure into wickets. Ravindra Jadeja (2/90) eventually finished with a couple of wickets in the innings, while Manav Suthar also claimed three (3/113), but the breakthroughs came far too slowly to give India the victory they had been expecting.
The problem was not simply the absence of wickets. India's spinners failed to consistently create the kind of sustained pressure that is normally expected from a team hunting a handful of lower-order wickets on the final day of a Test.
Sri Lanka's batters were able to occupy the crease, defend for long periods and drain the clock. Every over without a wicket increased the pressure on India, while the visitors increasingly had to rely on individual moments rather than sustained bowling dominance.
Dinusha was at the centre of that resistance.
After scoring 103 in the first innings, he produced another determined hundred in the second innings, becoming the eighth Sri Lankan to score centuries in both innings of a Test. It was also his third century of the two-Test series, after his 100 and 84 in Galle.
His performance turned what had looked like a routine Indian victory into one of the most frustrating finishes of the series.
A rare failure after enforcing the follow-on
The draw also carries a significant statistical sting for India. This was the ninth occasion on which India had enforced the follow-on against Sri Lanka, and for the first time, they failed to win the match.
That statistic neatly captures the nature of India's disappointment. Enforcing the follow-on is usually a declaration of dominance - an indication that the bowling side believes it has enough control, time and resources to dismiss the opposition again.
India had all three.
Yet they could not finish the job.
Sri Lanka's resistance deserves enormous credit, particularly given the circumstances. The hosts were asked to bat again after conceding a 213-run deficit and still managed to bat deep into the final day.
Gill's captaincy will invite questions
For Shubman Gill, the result will inevitably bring scrutiny. Gill's decision to enforce the follow-on was understandable. With rain having already eaten into playing time, India needed to maximise the number of overs available to their bowlers. At that stage, asking Sri Lanka to bat again was arguably the most aggressive route to victory.
The questions will instead centre on what happened afterwards.
India needed only four wickets on the fifth morning, but the attack struggled to prise them out. The lack of penetration from the spinners, particularly as the game entered its closing stages, allowed Sri Lanka to keep India at bay.
Captaincy in such circumstances becomes a fine balance between attacking fields and run containment. Gill's decisions on bowling changes, field placements and how aggressively to attack the tail will all come under the microscope.
It is also worth remembering that India's decision was influenced by circumstances beyond Gill's control. Rain repeatedly interrupted the Test, and the lost overs ultimately proved crucial. India had created a winning position; the weather and Sri Lankan resistance combined to ensure they could not convert it.
Still, when a team has reduced the opposition to the brink of defeat and needs only four wickets on the final day, failing to finish the contest will naturally invite questions.
Series win, but a warning sign
India leave Sri Lanka with a 1-0 series victory, and the result should not obscure the larger picture. Gill's side was the better team across the two Tests and produced some excellent cricket, particularly through Padikkal, Jurel and the pace attack.
But the Colombo Test exposed a weakness that India will not want to carry forward.
A dominant Test team is not judged only by how strongly it establishes control; it is also judged by how ruthlessly it converts that control into victory.
India had Sri Lanka following on. They had four wickets to take. They had an entire final day in which to do it.
They could not.
For Sri Lanka, it was a remarkable escape. For Dinusha, it was a coming-of-age performance. And for Gill and India's bowling attack, it was a reminder that the final few wickets can sometimes be the hardest - and most revealing - ones to take.
