It needed a special ball from Jasprit Bumrah to end a special innings from Dimuth Karunaratne at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday. Sri Lanka’s inspirational captain dug in for the long haul, aware that his team were waging a losing battle, but determined to let that work on his mind. The left-handed opener breezed to a stupendous 14th Test hundred on the third day of the second Test, heralding Sri Lanka’s only bright spot on a tour where nothing has gone their way.
Standing ovation for Dimuth
His mellifluous 107 wasn’t going to be enough, not by a long way; all it could do was reduce the margin, soften the blow. But it was so beautifully conceived and flawlessly executed that it invited a standing ovation from one of the greatest openers of all time, Sunil Gavaskar.
Bumrah’s screaming inswinger which tailed in late, crashed through Karunaratne’s defences and knocked out his middle pole signalled the end of the final pocket of resistance, hastening India’s massive 238-run victory in the first day-night Test in this city. The no-contest lasted a little over half the distance and amply illustrated the gulf between the sides, India’s 2-0 sweep netting them 24 World Test Championship points (WTC).
Overnight 28 for one chasing an impossible 447, Sri Lanka keeled over for 208, 35 minutes before the scheduled dinner break. For the duration of Karunaratne’s stay, however, the denouement was the last thing on another excellent turnout’s minds.
It was clear from the off that Sri Lanka were going to go out swinging. Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis had two strokes to every delivery; they enjoyed the rub of the green and cashed in with handsome strokes, making the most of the attacking fields employed by Rohit Sharma. Runs came at a hectic pace until R Ashwin, the off-spinner who became the first to 100 WTC wickets, got one to slither past Mendis’s outside edge for Player of the Series Rishabh Pant to complete a simple stumping.
Jadeja removes Mathews
The second wicket had yielded 97 runs, Sri Lanka’s highest partnership of the series, but any suspicion it could be the start of a fightback was soon snuffed out when Ravindra Jadeja got one to hasten through and disturb Angelo Mathews’ leg peg.
Amid the carnage around him, Karunaratne played his strokes freely and without hesitation, but once Bumrah returned for a second spell and castled him, it was all over in a jiffy. Sri Lanka lost four for four in 17 deliveries, the late implosion hardly a fitting tribute to their indefatigable leader.
