It is easy to gaze into the yonder from the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The mountains are bewitching and the clouds ever-present.
Dinesh Chandimal’s men too were often staring into the skies, albeit for different reasons. The Sri Lankan fielders were peering hard at a red cherry that repeatedly soared high and stayed beyond their reach while an audacious Hardik Pandya owned the stage.
The all-rounder’s blistering maiden Test century (108, 96b, 8x4, 7x6) helped India post a first innings total of 487 here on the second day of the third Test. At close, Sri Lanka was in a shambles. The host replied with 135, was forced to follow-on, mustered 19 for one in the second dig and is trailing the visitor by 333 runs.
Rousing hitting
Sunday belonged to Pandya. His rousing performance included the record for the highest runs scored by an Indian in a single over. He plundered 26 off left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara. The scoring sequence (4,4,6,6,6,0) rendered fielders at long-on and long-off, redundant. His arms flexed in cohesion, the feet and bat stayed in sync, the stroke’s follow-through was extravagant and the resultant laughter in the Indian dressing room never stopped.
Pandya’s blitzkrieg put to shade the previous best of 24 in an over, shared by Kapil Dev and Sandeep Patil, who both hammered England bowlers. Kapil struck four sixes against spinner Eddie Hemmings at Lord’s in 1990 and Patil pounded Bob Willis for six fours at Old Trafford in 1982.
One man witnessed all three exploits. Ravi Shastri, as a teammate of Kapil and Patil, watched their staggering strokes and now as the head coach, he saw a youngster fire a fusillade. Having struck Baroda’s Tilak Raj for six sixes in an over during a Ranji Trophy game, Shastri knows a thing or two about taking ‘the aerial route’.
Resuming from 329 for six, Pandya saw Wriddhiman Saha perish early. Soon a teaser for his imminent exploits was premiered as Pandya leaned back and upper-cut Lahiru Kumara’s bouncer over the wicketkeeper’s head. Along with Kuldeep Yadav, Pandya added 62 runs for the eighth wicket. An alliance laced with the former’s singles and the latter’s clean hits.
Once Kuldeep and Mohammed Shami, who drilled straight back to Lakshan Sandakan, were dismissed, Pandya slammed the accelerator. With last-man Umesh Yadav for company, Pandya smote everything and the duo added 66 for the final wicket.
Chandimal threw a dare and stationed nine on the fence but the centurion was equal to the task. He picked the gaps, got the required elevation, galloped to his ton, spread his arms and bowed towards the dressing room.
India surged to 487 for seven at lunch and it is a measure of Pandya’s dominance that among the 158 gained in the first session, his contribution was 107. He, however, became Sandakan’s fifth victim after lunch but by then he had handed the keys of the match to Kohli.
Another shocking display
Sri Lanka’s response consisted of another shocking display of inept batting.
Shami’s swing accounted for Upul Tharanga and Dimuth Karunaratne as the openers moved their bats more in hope. Kusal Mendis made the fatal error of under-estimating R. Ashwin’s fielding skills. The off-spinner’s diving stop and throw may have missed the stumps but Kuldeep, who backed-up sharply, knocked down the timber. A lackadaisical Mendis was still short of his non-striker’s crease!
Pandya was also in the thick of action, trapping Angelo Mathews and catching Dilruwan Perera in the deep. Chandimal and Niroshan Dickwella’s 63-run fifth-wicket partnership was the lone point of Sri Lankan resistance just as Kuldeep and Ashwin got into the act.
Except for a brief phase when Chandimal drove him thrice for fours, Kuldeep spun a web and grabbed four wickets. And Ashwin dismissed the home team’s skipper. Soon, Kohli asked Sri Lanka to bat again and Umesh Yadav castled Upul Tharanga. India’s 3-0 white-wash should occur sooner than expected.
