India claim two wickets in opening session at Nagpur
ByReuters
Published 24/11/2017 at 06:38 GMT
Nov 24 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka lost a brace of wickets in the morning session to reach the lunch interval against India on 47 for two after the tourists won the toss and opted to bat in the second match of their three-test series in Nagpur on Friday.
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The visitors, who succumbed by a 9-0 margin across all formats at home against India earlier this year, did not get off to a great start when Sadeera Samarawickrama and Lahiru Thirimanne both fell cheaply on a greenish wicket.
The situation could have been worse for Sri Lanka as opening batsman Dimuth Karunaratne rode his luck to remain unbeaten on 21 at the interval, with former captain Angelo Mathews on one at the other end.
The breakthrough came when Cheteshwar Pujara took a brilliant low catch at first slip to send back Samarawickrama for 13 after the batsman got a thick edge to a delivery from paceman Ishant Sharma.
Pujara was, however, guilty of putting down Karunaratne on 15 when the ball burst through his hands after the batsman had advanced down the pitch to off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and played a lofted on-drive.
The left-handed batsman survived another scare on 21 when replays showed left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja had no-balled after wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha had expertly whipped off the bails with the batsman out of his crease.
The other wicket fell when Thirimanne attempted a rash sweep shot off Ashwin and was bowled for nine to further hamper Sri Lanka, who were unchanged from the drawn first test in Kolkata.
The touring side dominated India for most of the opener at Eden Gardens but the world's top-ranked test side made a stunning comeback on the final two days to seize the momentum by the end of an intriguing drawn match.
The hosts made three changes to the side from Kolkata with the experienced Ishant replacing Mohammed Shami, who misses out due to a niggle in his left hip.
Murali Vijay returned at the top of the batting order after opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan opted out of the match for personal reasons.
The final change sees batsman Rohit Sharma play his first test in more than a year after he replaced seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who withdrew from the final two matches to get married. (Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by John O'Brien)
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