Dinusha's 133* saves Colombo Test as India settle for 1-0 series win
The picture on day four in Colombo was one of India closing in on a 2-0 sweep. It did not end that way. Sonal Dinusha batted through the final day, Sri Lanka saved the second Test, and India had to be content with a 1-0 series win from the Galle victory.
India chose to bat first at the SSC and built 503 for 9 declared. Devdutt Padikkal made 117 and Dhruv Jurel stayed unbeaten on 115. Sri Lanka's reply of 290 was held together by Dinusha's 103 and an 80 from Pasindu Sooriyabandara. Prasidh Krishna and Manav Suthar took three wickets each. Sri Lanka finished 13 short of the follow-on target, and India sent them back in straight away with a lead of 213.
The early signs were good for India. Mohammed Siraj removed opener Lahiru Udara in the first few overs, and Kamil Mishara followed with the score on 63. Then Sooriyabandara and Kamindu Mendis took the game away from India for a while. They added more than a hundred for the third wicket, wiped out the deficit and played with a freedom that did not look like a side following on. At one stage Sri Lanka were 209 for 3, only four runs behind with seven wickets in hand, on a pitch that was still good for batting.
India's spinners then broke through. Suthar removed Dhananjaya de Silva and then Sooriyabandara, who was stumped for 92, eight short of a maiden Test hundred. Saransh Jain trapped Niroshan Dickwella lbw soon afterwards. Sri Lanka had lost five wickets for next to nothing and were 229 for 6, a lead of just 16, when rain and bad light ended the day. India went to bed as clear favourites to finish the match and the series on day five.
Dinusha, on 7 overnight, had other plans. Alongside the lower order, starting with Keshara Nuwantha, he batted through the whole day. India took only three wickets on the final day. Dinusha ended unbeaten on 133 from 264 balls with eight fours and two sixes. Sri Lanka declared on 429 for 9, a lead of 216, with too little time left for India to chase. The captains shook hands with the mandatory 15 overs still to be bowled. By the end, India's bowlers had sent down 243.4 overs across the two innings.
The numbers behind Dinusha's series are striking. In his fifth Test he scored hundreds in both innings of the second match, and it was his third century in four innings. His series scores were 100, 84, 103 and 133 not out. That was enough for the player-of-the-match award in Colombo, though not for player of the series.
That award went to Padikkal, who scored 328 runs with a century in each Test. The left-hander's consistency is the biggest positive for India from the tour. Jurel's unbeaten hundred in Colombo is another, as it strengthens the case for him in the middle order.
For India the lesson is mixed. The batting depth was exactly what they would want overseas. But Colombo also showed how a single batter in form can frustrate a spin attack on a flat surface. A side with a 213-run lead and a follow-on in hand will always feel it should win, and India could not turn that position into a second victory. Weather played its part, with regular evening rain cutting into playing time, but the bowlers also let Sri Lanka's seventh-wicket pair bat for long stretches without much threat.
Sri Lanka lose the series but gain a lot. Dinusha looks like a long-term number five or six, and Sooriyabandara made 80 and 92 in only his second Test, his first in the starting XI. Asitha Fernando also took four wickets in India's innings. For a home side that had struggled for opening partnerships, those individual performances are good news.