Sudeshna Guha Roy/Zeecric Bureau
Colombo: The high-scoring second Test between India and Sri Lanka here at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) on Friday ended in a draw as the hosts maintained a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
The match saw some spectacular knocks played by both the teams, but all went in vain, as India were denied of their second innings altogether.
The proceeding of the fifth day started with tail-enders Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha frustrating Sri Lankan bowlers for almost the entire morning session.
Resuming from their overnight score of 669/9, India saw a brilliant show put up by Ishant (27) and Ojha (17 not out) as the duo shared the longest partnership for India in terms of balls faced by number 10 and 11 batsmen as they resisted 174 balls together.
The duo nearly batted out the entire session and looked in no trouble at all against the spinners, before Dilhara Fernando snapped the former’s wicket late into the first session to disturb the last pair.
Fernando got Ishant caught by skipper Kumar Sangakkara at gully for 27. His dismissal, thus, ended the Indian innings at 707, leading the Lankans by 65 runs.
Sri Lanka, who made 642 for four declared in the first innings, started their second innings on a high as openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana’s willow kept on delivering boundaries every now and then.
Scorecard: India Vs Sri Lanka»
The duo took the team past 50 within no time, soon after which, Abhimanyu Mithun played the spoilsport and got Dilshan (14) caught by Ishant Sharma, who took a brilliant low catch at wide mid on.
A few overs later, Paranavitana (34) too lost his wicket to Harbhajan Singh who got him caught by VVS Laxman at the second slip.
Later, towards the end of the second session, Virender Sehwag got Mahela Jayawardene plumb in front of the wickets and dismissed him for mere 5 runs.
However, skipper Kumar Sangakkara (42) and Thilan Samaraweera (10) continued with the game and finally declared the innings at 129/3, after which the match was declared as draw.
The match saw some high figures statistics with 1478 runs for 17 wickets in five days. Two batsmen, Kumar Sangakkara and Sachin Tendulkar, smashed double tons and three batsmen scored centuries. The bowlers too proved awfully expensive as Suraj Randiv gave out 222 runs and seven others got to their 100’s as well.
India will now take on Sri Lanka in the last and the final Test match at Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, beginning on August 3.