Recent Match Report – India vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test 2021/22

Sixteen wickets fell on a pitch offering square turn and uncertain bounce from ball one, and India ended day one in a hugely dominant position. The packed crowd that thronged the Chinnaswamy Stadium may have expected their spin trio to get them to that position; instead, it was Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami who took five of the six Sri Lankan wickets to fall, bowling with high pace and skill, and extracting maximum value from a pink ball that swung and seamed just enough under lights to keep threatening both edges.

This was still a spinner’s pitch, but R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel were still waiting to fully come into the game at the close of play. Sri Lanka’s spinners, meanwhile, failed entirely to capitalise on the help they were getting, bowling too full or too short and allowing India to score at more than four runs an over on a pitch where they had no business doing so. Shreyas Iyer led their charge to a first-innings total of 252, using his feet expertly and putting the spinners under immense pressure over the course of a counterattacking innings of 92.