Sri Lanka showed gumption on the final day of the Test series to salvage a draw at the Feroz Shah Kotla as India had to contend themselves with a 1-0 series win.
If India’s first innings was all about the duo of Murali Vijay and captain Virat Kohli, then it was Angelo Mathews and skipper Dinesh Chandimal who dominated the proceedings in the subsequent innings.
Vijay substantiated himself as an opener in the Indian team once again by scoring his second century of the series in the third Test while Kohli came on the crease to break records and he did it in some style by hitting sixth double century of his Test career.
It was vital for Mathews to score some runs coming into the third Test and he smashed a century wearing whites after two years while Chandimal made full use of his good form and amassed 164 runs to aid his team post a decent total on the board in the first innings.
The hosts set a target of 410 runs and were on track of winning the Test before Dhananjaya de Silva scored a century on the final day, with the stand between Roshan Silva and Niroshan Dickwella making sure that Sri Lanka avoided defeat at all costs.
All Indian players performed as per the expectations except Ajinkya Rahane and Umesh Yadav. The road will be tough for the former in India’s next Test series against the Proteas in South Africa. On the other hand, the time is running out very quickly for Umesh to prove his worth in the Test cricket as he has only picked up one five-wicket haul from 36 Tests, and India also have a healthy competition in their pace bowling department currently.
Sri Lanka can not look backwards now as they have to take some bold steps to make their Test team stable and it will take time but it’s important for them to think in that direction as quickly as possible.
As of now, let’s look at the records created and broken in the third Test between India and Sri Lanka played at Delhi.
No other Sri Lankan player has taken 100 Test wickets in fewer matches than Dilruwan Perera.
Kohli became the 11th Indian batsman to score 5,000-plus runs in Tests and he is the fourth quickest among them.
Kohli’s tally of 2,818 runs in 2017 in international cricket is the second most by any player after Ricky Ponting, who scored 2,833 runs in 2005 across formats.
Kohli became the second Indian batsman to score a double century in consecutive Test innings after Vinod Kambli.
Kohli is the only captain to score six double centuries in the longest version of the game.
No other Indian player has scored more double centuries than Kohli in Test cricket. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag also hit six double tons in their Test careers.
Kohli now holds the record of scoring most runs in a Test innings among Indian captains. He broke his own record of 235 runs which he made against England at Mumbai last year.
The Delhi lad is also the proud owner of the following record.
Kohli became the first Indian player to score 600-plus runs in a three-match Test series.
Virat Kohli has now won five Man of the Match awards as an Indian captain which is a record.
No other Indian captain has won more Man of the Series awards across formats than Kohli.
India are now one step away from breaking the record for winning most consecutive Test series’. They have already won nine consecutive Test series’ so far.
Sri Lanka’s total of 299 for five in the fourth innings of the Delhi Test was the highest fourth innings total by a visiting team in India.