Related Links : Sri Lanka in India 2009/10 | India Vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test Scorecard
India had to wait quite a long time after lunch to clinch what was a historic 100th Test victory. India won by an innings and 144 runs which is the third biggest victory in its history.
The pair of Thilan Samaraweera and Ajantha Mendis made the Indians to work hard to separate them. The fielding side was defied for more than an hour and it forced MS Dhoni to make double bowling changes. Yuvraj Singh was brought on so that his round arm action does the trick in getting an lbw. That’s exactly what happened when Ajantha Mendis came half forward and was taken aback by an arm ball that struck the pad infront of the off stump by Yuvraj. Mendis batted out 75 balls and stayed close to one and half hours while scoring 27 in a 9th wicket stand of 73.
Samaraweera wasn’t allowed to get to a hundred as the last man in Chanaka Welegedara got caught and bowled off a leading edge. Debutant Pragyan Ojha finished the match with a fligted one and Welegedara looked to work it against the turn. Thilan Samaraweera stayed unbeaten on 78 from 123 balls (with 11 fours).
Overall India needed just 65.3 overs to wrap up Sri Lanka’s second innings. The spinners did the damage in the second innings with Harbhajan Singh having figures of 22-2-98-3 and Pragyan Ojha strangulating the scoring rate with 15.3-4-36-2. The Man of the Match was rightly given to Sreesanth who finished with a match haul of 6 for 119 in 33 overs.
The third and final Test starts from the 2nd of December at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. India with today’s victory have become the No.1 in the ICC Test Rankings. The hosts cannot lose the 3-Test series with a lead of 1-0.