Sri Lankan opener Upul Tharanga once again got unlucky during the play when KL Rahul caught his ball. Rahul was standing at the short-leg position which happens to be the same position where Abhinav Mukund fielded in the first Test. Virat Kohli decided to open the bowling attack with Ravichandran Ashwin, replacing Mohammed Shami. Tharanga tried to work the last ball of Ashwin’s first over towards the mid-wicket but ended up playing it straight to Rahul.
The ball hit Rahul on his chest when he jumped in the air in an attempt to evade the ball in case it was struck hard. Rahul realised that the ball was stuck between his arms and soon got got hold of it in his hands before he landed on the ground.
Rahul was ecstatic as soon as he took the unusual catch at short leg. He ran away from the short leg and celebrated the catch with ‘dab’ celebration. On seeing the move, skipper Kohli too reciprocated the celebration upon realising that his master plan against the opener had worked. Sri Lanka’s impact opener Tharanga had once again failed to make an impact and got out for a duck, which in turn mounted the pressure on Sri Lankan batsmen.
— Cricvids (@Cricvids1) August 4, 2017
Earlier India put on a mammoth total of 622 for 9 featuring centuries from Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara and half centuries from Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha and Ravindra Jadeja. India now have a strong hold over the second Test at Colombo too as they have scored more than 600 and have already picked up two wickets of Tharanga and Dimuth Karunaratne.
Ashwin came back into the form and picked up two wickets, that too with the new ball, giving India an edge. A follow on is most likely to happen as the score of 422 seems to far from the grasp of the hosts.
