Ravindra Jadeja's career-best 175 was the centerpiece of another strong show by India's batting before the bowlers took four wickets to help the hosts in extending their stronghold over Sri Lanka on day two of the first Test at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium on Saturday.
After Jadeja's enthralling show propelled India to declare at a mammoth 574/8, the bowlers made inroads into Sri Lanka's innings, leaving them at 108/4 in 43 overs, trailing by 466 runs.
The visitors got off to a steady start as Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne got 48 runs in the first 18 overs. India used four bowlers within the first ten overs but didn't get much help from the pitch.
Ravichandran Ashwin's introduction made things tough for Thirimanne and eventually, the off-spinner enticed him in defending forward and beating the inner edge to trap the batter plumb lbw.
Karunaratne managed to survive testing over from Mohammed Shami. But Jadeja, who got some turn and created chances for lbw shouts, struck with his second ball of the day, trapping Karunaratne with a spinning-in delivery and hit him on pads plumb in front of stumps while trying to sweep.
Pathum Nissanka and Angelo Mathews looked confident at the crease after hitting some boundaries. But Jasprit Bumrah separated the duo, cleaning up Nissanka through the gate, only to realise that it came off a no-ball. Bumrah finally got a wicket when he trapped a shuffling Mathews lbw, rapping him on the back pad.
Ashwin then came back for another spell and was rewarded with the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva on the very first ball. De Silva shuffled across to slog-sweep to a very full delivery on off-stump and was struck plumb in front of stumps.
Jadeja had beaten Charith Asalanka on the inside edge and was successful in his lbw appeal. But Asalanka got to reverse the decision as the review showed the ball missing the stumps. Asalanka and Nissanka then ensured that Sri Lanka reached stumps with no further loss of wickets.
