India and Sri Lanka face off in a gruelling and long series tomorrow and it looks to be promising despite India enjoying the upper hand in terms of form and experience. The series has traditionally been an exciting one with plenty of brilliant innings and superb bowling performances in equal measure.
Here are five of the best bowling performances by India against Sri Lanka in Lanka:
Ravichandran Ashwin, 5-42:
Losing 1-0 in the three test series, India needed to win the next game in order to stand a chance to win the series overall. They batted first and put a comfortable score of 393 that was cut down to a 87 run lead thanks to Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 306.
With two days left, India managed to extend their second innings lead to 413 before declaring which meant that Sri Lanka had a day and a half to chase it down. While they were playing for a draw, Ashwin had other ideas.
The bowler managed to run through the batting order by picking up the prized scalps of Kumar Sangakkara and Thirimanne and his five wickets made the difference.
Harbhajan Singh, 6-102:
Playing in Galle, India displayed a masterful performance with both bat and ball as they cruised to a victory against their rivals. Virender Sehwag was the hero with the bat as he smashed a wonderful 201 as India hit 329.
Harbhajan then came in the second innings to wreak havoc amongst the Sri Lankan ranks. He took 6 wickets in quick succession as Sri Lanka folded by conceding a 37 run lead.
India managed to set a target of 307 for the Lankans but they were once again done by the brilliant offie, as he picked up 4 more wickets to take his haul to 10 and win India the game.
Zaheer Khan, 4-76:
The Sri Lankan pitches are not known to be fast-bowler friendly but Zaheer Khan produced a rare performance that proved his class and talent.
India were 42 runs behind after their first innings while chasing Sri Lanka’s 274 runs. The second innings was for them to pile on the runs but not on Zaheer’s watch. He ripped through the strong batting line-up by taking the big wickets of Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Russell Arnold.
India then had to chase down the target of 264 which they did and scripted a famous win on foreign soil.
Venkatesh Prasad, 5-72:
The fast bowler was another one who produced an excellent performance in Sri Lankan soil. Playing in Kandy, Venkatesh Prasad bowled a masterful spell with Zaheer Khan as India won a famous test match.
Playing first, the Lankans were bowled out for 274 but managed to curb India to just 232. In reply, they could only make 221 thanks to Prasad.
He took big wickets, including captain Atapattu and Hashan Tillakaratne before bundling out the lower order to win India the game.
Anil Kumble, 5-24:
The legendary Indian spinner took 5 wickets in a first innings that helped India post a massive 235 run victory.
After being put into bat, India managed 366 runs largely due to Vinod Kambli’s century and Navjot Singh Sidhu’s 85 runs. After the first innings, they were looking for someone to bowl at the Lankans effectively and Kumble stood up.
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Playing in one of his first ever series, he took 5 wicket for just 24 runs as the Lankans had no clue what had hit them. India then went on to smash in their second innings and Kumble picked up another 3 in their second as India won the game.
