The second Test match being played between India and Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) ground in Colombo has reached an exciting turn. The Sri Lankan team playing follow-on has crossed the lead of 100 runs. Sonal Dinusha and Keshara Nuvantha are also in the lead on the fifth day (27th August). There has been a century partnership between the two. Dinusha has scored his fourth consecutive fifty plus score in this series. Whereas Nuvantha is nearing his first Test fifty.
Sri Lanka's return
India bowled out Sri Lanka for 290 after declaring their first innings at 503/9. Team India got a lead of 213 runs. In such a situation, Indian captain Shubman Gill forced Sri Lanka to play follow-on. The Sri Lankan team, which came to play follow-on, showed fighting spirit but before the end of the fourth day's play, it lost 6 wickets at the score of 218. He had a lead of only 5 runs. From here Dinusha and Nuvantha took charge and did not allow Sri Lanka to suffer any further setbacks till stumps on the fourth day. Both of them played about 14.1 overs.
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Indian bowlers had hopes that they would break this pair on the fifth day and wrap up Sri Lanka's second innings quickly but they could not take any wicket in the first session of play. The Sri Lankan team, which started its innings with the score of 229/6, has reached the score of 319/6.
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Will India face a defeat like 2015?
Team India, captained by Virat Kohli, took 5 wickets for 95 runs in the second innings after gaining a huge lead of 192 runs over Sri Lanka in the 2015 Galle Test. The Indian team seemed to be winning this match by an innings margin but Dinesh Chandimal (162 not out) along with Lahiru Thirimane (44) and Jehan Mubarak (49) turned the tables.
Thanks to the charismatic innings of these three, the Sri Lankan team scored 367 runs and set a target of 176 runs for India. Chasing this, Team India was reduced to just 112 and lost the Galle Test by 63 runs. Team India will still remember this defeat. In such a situation, Shubman Gill and Company would like to prevent Sri Lanka from setting a target of around 200 in the Colombo Test at any cost.