Welcome to Sportstar‘s LIVE coverage of the second Test between India and Sri Lanka in Bengaluru.

LIVE COMMENTARY

Karunaratne plays a paddle sweep off Axar Patel to pick up four runs through fine leg. A flat delivery, short of a length, on leg-stump. Karunaratne helps the ball on its way. Earlier in the over, Rishabh Pant tells the bowler: ‘subah waali bowling dekh le’ (watch the practice in the morning).

Karunaratne moves to 73 with a single off Ashwin through mid-off.

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It’s been a nice innings from Dimuth Karunaratne – watchful, impeccable. But India is chipping away at the opposition. Join us after the break, in a few minutes.

SL 151/4 in 39 overs: That will be Tea break. Sri Lanka gets 123 runs in 32 overs in the session a definitely one of the better ones for the visitor in this series. Shami bowls a fiery final over before the break. Starts off with a bouncer and then gets one to go off the splice of Dickwella’s bat but it loops up and lands safe in a vacant area close the stumps. Axar gives two runs in the over before that with Dickwella and Karunaratne coming down the track to counter the turn.

SL 148/4 in 37 overs: Dickwella is living life on the edge now. The umpire rules him out but he decides to go upstairs. The review shows there was no contact with the bat as the ball passed it en route to the ‘keeper. Next, the ball lobs over and dips short of Axar at backward short leg. Axar’s first ball after 33 overs has been scythed hard for four. Karunaratne finally reaches his fifty. Time for the pacers to return to action. Shami has been hit for four through midwicket. In the air and to the fence, Axar’s first ball has been hit for a boundary again. India loses a review after Rohit decides to allow the umpires to have another look at what he thought was an edge to the ‘keeper. It is one of those days for Karunaratne… the edge keeps low and rolls down to the boundary.

SL 119/4  in 32 overs: Vihari takes a blinder at forward short leg to remove Dhananjaya, whose struggle finally comes to an end. Pant fails to read the huge turn on the next ball and it goes down leg and to the fence. Niroshan Dickwella and Karunaratne keep the scoreboard ticking with singles and the occasional double.

SL 104/3 in 27 overs: Jadeja’s quicker deliveries are quite evidently bothering Dhananjaya de Silva. Time for a drinks break. Ashwin and Jadeja bowl three back-to-back maidens after the timeout. Dhananjaya tries to go big but miscues as he scores just two runs.

SL 102/3 in 22 overs: Ashwin comes round the wicket and concedes six runs off his first ball. After Mendis picks up two quick runs, four bonus runs come in overthrows as Iyer’s hit at the striker’s end finds no one backing up. Jadeja has been greeted with a boundary as Mendis lofts a drive past Vihari. Jadeja isn’t too happy about it. Mayank has hurt his knee at silly point. He is being attended to and will be okay to carry on. Mendis, meanwhile, reaches his 12th Test fifty. He will be eager to convert this into triple figures to give his side a fighting chance in this one-sided affair. Off the backfoot and nails the pull, does Mendis, beating the fielders near midwicket. AND GONE! Mendis has been beaten by Ashwin and Pant takes no time to whip the bails off. Castled! Another quicker delivery from Jadeja gets rid of Mathews for 1.

SL 79/1 in 17 overs: Jadeja returns. Loud appeal for caught behind as the ball turns past the outside edge of Mendis after pitching on off stump line. Ten runs come from the 15th over after Mendis sweeps the last ball to the square leg fence. Five dots and then a lucky boundary for Karunaratne to end the 16th over. He gets a thick inside edge trying to drive and it runs away past the keeper and to the rope.The 17th is another over, which had positive approach from SL batters on display. Five runs from the over after Karunaratne goes for a reverse-sweep and gets two and then flicks Jadeja for a couple through midwicket.

SL 55/1 in 12 overs: A positive start to the day for Sri Lanka as Karunaratne steps out and pierces the gap between midwicket and mid-on. Dropped! Karunaratne gets the edge but the ball stays low before flying between the legs of Kohli at slip. Four more. Bumrah bowls a maiden. Jadeja, having bowled just one over, has been replaced by Ashwin. The Tamil Nadu spinner concedes four byes three balls after Mendis gets some glove on the ball to pick four runs down fine leg. Meanwhile, the 50 comes up for SL as another ball stays low to fall short of Rohit at second slip. The Sri Lanka batters have decided to go after the bowling – Mendis goes aerial over midwicket to pick up a boundary.

Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis resume the Sri Lankan chase. Ravindra Jadeja will open the bowling on day three with nine wickets to get.

DAY 3 PITCH REPORT

“The first two days weren’t easy for the batters and it is not going to get easy on day three. The sun is beating down, the cracks have opened up and as a batter you don’t want to find yourself in such a situation,” reckon Deep Dasgupta and Murali Karthik.

DAY 2 MATCH REPORT

On a day-two pitch with square turn and low bounce, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah picked his first Test five-for at home and Rishabh Pant lasted 45 minutes to strike at an astounding 161.29 and beat Sri Lanka to pulp at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday. 

India declared on 303 for nine, setting Sri Lanka a massive target of 447. With 35 minutes to negotiate, the Islanders lost Lahiru Thirimaanne to Bumrah for a duck. Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis took Sri Lanka to 28/1 at stumps. 

Swift end

Twenty-seven minutes and 35 balls. That’s how long it took India to wipe out the remaining four Sri Lankan wickets in the first session. 

Bumrah snapped up Lasith Embuldeniya, who tried to hook a short ball but only managed to lob it to Rishabh Pant. Bumrah then had Niroshan Dickwella caught behind with another short ball for his first five-for at home. 

Meanwhile, R Ashwin, from the other end, nipped out Suranga Lakmal and Vishwa Fernando with carrom balls as the visitor folded for 109.

Sweeping success

In the third innings, India lost opener Mayank Agarwal early but Rohit Sharma and Hanuma Vihari set the tone that the host needed on a pitch with puffs of dust and mini explosions. 

Against spin, both batters pulled out the sweep liberally, with Rohit even employing three reverse-sweeps; clearly a part of the plan to be proactive against the turning ball, especially once two men were pushed back on the boundary, square on the leg side. They could now afford to even top-edge one or two. Rohit got a reprieve on 18 when he was dropped by Thirimanne at first slip off Embuldeniya. But he eventually holed out to long-on for a well-crafted 46, ending a 56-run stand with Vihari. 

As Rohit began his walk back to the dressing room, the crowd noise took a hypnotic rhythm, with Kohli taking the centre stage again. He stepped out to Dhananjaya de Silva and launched the ball over the bowler’s head for his first four. Vihari continued to impress with his decisive footwork but was bowled on the sweep for 35 by Praveen Jayawickrama (4 for 78). 

Pant goes big

If Kohli’s arrival was greeted by 1000 decibels, Rishabh Pant’s entrance only added to the burgeoning noise. He showed just why by racing to 20 off 7 with two sixes and a four in just seven balls. There was a lap sweep off Jayawickrama, and a flick down to long leg off Dhananjaya that went through his legs, reiterating the unadulterated joy of watching Pant. 

But just as he and Kohli were turning on the heat, Kohli was lbw for 13 by Jayawickrama, bringing his Test average below 50 (49.95) for the first time in almost five years.

That didn’t deter Pant, who smashed the fastest Test fifty by an Indian — overtaking Kapil Dev — getting there off 28 balls with a flourishing drive for four before falling to Jayawickrama trying to clear the rope.

Iyer comes good

Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas Iyer piled more misery on a tired, rudderless attack with a 63-run stand for the sixth wicket. Along the way, Iyer brought up his second fifty of the match off 68 balls. Jadeja and Ashwin made sizeable contributions to prop up the lead before falling. Iyer looked set for a hundred but was second time unlucky as he was eventually out lbw off Embuldeniya for 67. 

Rohit called his men back soon after. Sri Lanka can now only wait for India to put an end to what seems like an interminable tale of misery.

– Ayan Acharya

PLAYING 11

India: Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma (c), Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Praveen Jayawickrama

TOSS: India opted to bat

TEAMS (from)

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hanuma Vihari, S. Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Saurabh Kumar, Jayant Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.

Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Dhananjaya de Silva (vc), Angelo Mathews, Charith Asalanka, Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Lasith Embuldeniya, Vishwa Fernando, Praveen Jayawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Lahiru Kumara, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera, Jeffrey Vandersay.