Mohali: India’s top off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin equaled Kapil Dev’s 434 Test wickets while Sri Lanka look to be on the verge of defeat by an innings margin, losing four wickets for 120 runs till tea on the third day of the first Test. Ashwin touched this figure in the 85th Test while Kapil took so many wickets in 131 Tests. Kapil and Ashwin’s rounds, conditions and opposing teams can’t be compared and both have different bowling.
Talking about statistics only, this is a big achievement for Tamil Nadu spinner Ashwin. Earlier, Ravindra Jadeja’s five-wicket haul helped India take a 400-run lead in the first innings after bowling out Sri Lanka for 174 in the first innings. Sri Lanka were in trouble again while playing the follow-on. Ashwin made Lahiru Thirimanne his 433rd victim in the first session. While handling the new ball, Ashwin got Thirimanne caught by Rohit at second slip.
5⃣th wicket of the match
4⃣3⃣5⃣th wicket in Tests
Sit back & relive how @ashwinravi99 became #TeamIndia‘s second-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket #INDvSL @paytm
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 6, 2022
After lunch, Ashwin completed 434 wickets with Pathum Nisanka caught behind the wicket by Rishabh Pant. Ashwin later dismissed Aslanka of Sri Lanka for the 435th wicket. Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami got Dimuth Karunaratne (27) caught by Pant while Ravindra Jadeja made Dhananjay de Silva (30) his sixth victim in the match. Angelo Mathews 27 and Charit Asalanka were playing 20 at tea time. This is Virat Kohli’s hundredth Test and Rohit Sharma’s first Test as captain, but Jadeja proved to be the hero in this, taking five wickets for 41 runs in 13 overs.
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Sri Lankan team got out in 45 overs. Sri Lanka lost the last six wickets within 13 runs. After the score of 161 for four in the first hour, the entire team returned to the pavilion for 174 runs. Pathum Nisanka made an unbeaten 61 off 133 balls while Charit Asalanka added 58 runs. Bumrah started the collapse of the Sri Lankan innings by dismissing Asalanka. The rest of the batsmen lost their wickets by playing bad shots.
Niroshan Dickwella (two) tries to play a slog sweep to Jadeja, catching Shreyas Iyer at square leg. Suranga Lakmal survived the DRS appeal but lost his wicket early on off Ashwin. Ashwin took two for 49 and Mohammed Shami took one wicket for 27 runs. Jadeja has achieved the feat of taking five wickets in an innings for the 20th time in Test cricket.