Mathews made Kohli sweat but bowlers seal historic series win for India

Despite getting three wickets in the last session on the fourth day, Virat Kohli and co knew the win won’t come easily on day five. After all, during the course of the entire match, the pattern was set. Lose wickets off the new ball, steady the innings when the ball loses seam. And in Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka had a batsman in the best batting form of his life – and older the ball got, the more chances the hosts had to save this match.

Once Mathews survived the initial burst, everyone was waiting for the 80-over mark. The old ball could conjure up no new tricks for the Indian bowling attack. But when Ishant started the third session – the last of this gripping Test series – with the brand new Kookabura ball in his hand, there was a buzz in the air. After all the days of tough cricket, it came down to one session – and the home team’s captain, unbeaten after a majestic century, stood between India and a historic win.

With the third ball (after the new ball was taken), Ishant struck the most telling blow of this series. It was full, did not move off the deck and Mathews completely missed the line and got hit on the back-foot. The celebrations weren’t as wild as they were on day 4 but the relief was clear. There were still three wickets to be taken after that, but that was a mere formality as player-of-the-series Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra wrapped up the win for India.

From 1-0 down to 2-1 up, Virat Kohli’s troops achieved a famous series win away from home. It was also the first time in 22 years that India have won a series in Sri Lanka. Neither achievement should be taken lightly.

It was, by no means, a straight-forward win despite the 117-run margin. We saw two similar settings for a day five in the two consecutive Tests in Colombo. At the P Sara Oval last week, Mathews walked out with Dimuth Karunaratne as Sri Lanka had eight wickets in hand to save the match. But with the first ball of the day, stand-in ‘keeper KL Rahul took a blinder off Umesh Yadav’s outswinger, to dismiss Mathews. Sri Lanka never recovered from that blow as the last wickets fell for 80 runs.

Kohli said after that match that KL Rahul’s catch was the turning point that pushed India to victory. Kumar Sangakkara’s farwell ended on a somber note.

Fast forward eight days, Mathews was facing the exact same situation, at SSC, Colombo – this time it was not just the match, the series was on the line. Seven wickets in hand, 319 runs behind and a fired-up Indian attack going for a historic series win. Kohli needed not just an early breakthrough – they needed the wicket of Mathews.

Ishant did get his outside edge, Naman Ojha caught it, went up in celebration and saw the outstretched right arm of the umpire. The no-ball curse caught up with Ishant – it was bound to. Mathews survived. But Kausal Silva, the opener, did not – dismissed by Umesh Yadav – however as long as Mathews was still around, it did not matter.

A few overs later, another life for Mathews. This time a suicidal attempted single saw him give up half way through only for Ashwin to miss the stumps from short mid-wicket. A reflex run-out chance from KL Rahul when he was on 67, a very close LBW shout when he was on 93 followed as Mathews went on to make a remarkable second innings 100 – his fourth such effort in Tests.

The second session was all Sri Lanka, as it was expected. The biggest challenge for India coming to day five was how they bowl with the old kookaburra ball. With the relatively new ball, Indian bowlers were excellent in the first session. Ishant, despite that mis-step to Mathews, bowled beautiful lengths.

But after lunch the Indian bowlers started straying in their lines and lengths. Kausal, after a sedate start, started putting away the increasing number of bad balls – playing with the same bravado that saw him take the attack to the bowlers in the first innings.

Kohli kept rotating his bowlers, kept changing the field around – with a silly mid-off for Stuart Binny, wide leg-gully for Ashwin – and tried changing ends for the spinners. In a crucial blow, just before tea, India dismissed Kausal as he threw his wicket away with a ill-judged reverse sweep off Ashwin. This was at a time when a Sri Lankan win didn’t look that much of an impossibility.

“Yeah absolutely, we had a chance. Thought if me and Kusal could have stayed there longer, you never know,” said Mathews after the match. “Our batting flopped again to be honest. But credit to the Indian bowlers, they bowled beautifully.”

They did indeed. Ashwin took four wickets, Ishant took three, Yadav took two, Mishra got the last one that sealed it.

“Being 1-0 down in a series is never easy and we have created a bit of a history here. It’s a collective effort and we can be proud of how we played throughout. We can count on one hand how many sessions we did not play good cricket in this series,” said a beaming Kohli after the match.

Two contrasting fifth day bowling efforts in two Tests in Colombo for two big wins for Virat Kohli as a captain. A brave new dawn of Indian cricket under Kohli is off to a very positive start, indeed.