India beat Sri Lanka by 238 runs in the second Test to wrap up the day-night match in Bengaluru on day three and win the two-Test series 2-0 on Monday.
Chasing a daunting target of 447 for victory after India declared on 303-9, Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne battled hard to bring up his 14th Test ton (107) but wickets fell regularly at the other end.
Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis had chipped away in the first session and together the pair survived a couple of edges to bring up Sri Lanka’s highest partnership of the series (97) while Mendis also brought up his half-century. However, Sri Lanka then lost three wickets for eight runs as India took charge.
India made the breakthrough when spinner Ravichandran Ashwin enticed Mendis (54) to dance down the track, with the batsman misjudging the line as Pant collected the ball and quickly whipped off the bails.
Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka’s top scorer in the first innings, lasted only five balls as Ravindra Jadeja broke through his defence to knock over his leg stump while Ashwin struck again to have Dhananjaya de Silva caught at forward short leg.
Karunaratne played patiently and stitched together another 50-run stand with Niroshan Dickwella before India’s Axar Patel got in on the act in the second session and opened the gates to the lower order with two wickets.
He first had Dickwella stumped in identical fashion to the Mendis dismissal before Charith Asalanka gave Rohit Sharma an easy catch at backward short leg to leave Sri Lanka at 180-6.
Despite the circumstances, Karunaratne afforded himself a smile when he brought up a well-crafted century, with the crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium giving him a standing ovation.
But his stay at the crease was cut short soon after when Bumrah uprooted his middle stump with a delivery that sneaked through the gap between bat and pad.
Suranga Lakmal, playing in his final Test, was sent back when Jasprit Bumrah bowled him out and the whole India team went up to shake the 35-year-old veteran’s hand as he walked off.
Ashwin picked up the final wicket of Vishwa Fernando and his figures of 4-55 moved him up to eighth on the all-time list of most wickets (442 wickets).
India won the first test in Mohali by an innings and 222 runs.
