M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru witnessed another dominating show on Sunday by India in the ongoing day-night Test match. After getting bowled out for 252 on a difficult pitch, India have hardly put a foot wrong. They then bowled out Sri Lanka for 109, declared on 303/9, thereby setting a target of 447. Jasprit Bumrah then took out Lahiru Thirimanne in the first over. Sri Lanka ended Day 3 on 28/1.
Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer demonstrated how to bat on a difficult pitch, not once but twice in this Test match. They did not allow the spinners to dictate terms and kept attacking. As a result runs kept on coming.
Things look steep for Sri Lanka at this point. Dimuth Karunaratne & co. will have to bat out of their skin to take this Test match to Day 4 against a bowling attack with no apparent weakness. Considering their effort with the bat in the past three innings, not many fans will back them to pull off a miracle.
The Indian bowlers, on the other hand, have to be as relentless as they have been in this series. So far in this Test match, their pacers have been more effective on this dry Bengaluru surface compared to the spinners. Bumrah, who has taken six out of 11 Sri Lankan wickets so far, has used the skidiness of the pink SG ball and the inconsistent bounce of the surface to his advantage by primarily targeting the stumps.
With three full day's play left in the game, a result seems inevitable in this match. India seem set to secure 12 World Test Championship points here.
Fantasy tips
- Back the Indian bowlers to take the remaining nine Sri Lankan wickets within two sessions. Pick all five Indian bowlers, especially the spinners, who are likely to bowl more.
- Back Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews. They are the likeliest to score runs.
- Back both Pant and Niroshan Dickwella.