TimesofIndia.com in Galle: Two wickets in a session and then three in a single over. An extremely contrasting period of play on either side of the lunch interval saw India, riding on Manav Suthar’s second five-wicket haul in Tests, and first ten-wicket haul wrap up Sri Lanka’s innings in just over a session to seal an emphatic 165-run win in the first Test at Galle.The morning was anything but typical Day 5 action as the pitch remained true and even the turn wasn’t vicious enough to make the batters uncomfortable. The passage of play resembled the first-innings partnership between Sonal Dinusha and Niroshan Dickwella, but in the second essay, Dinusha had captain Dhananjaya de Silva for company. The left-right combination kept the visitors wicketless for over 30 overs.Captain Shubman Gill kept rotating his bowlers in different pairs, but they had to wait for Dhananjaya de Silva to lose his concentration and throw away his wicket. Jadeja’s celebration summed up the mood in the Indian camp; his arms went up and he went down, signalling more relief than happiness. He had removed the opposition captain on Day 4, but the no-ball gave the captain an early reprieve, leading to the frustrating period of play.Just as it has usually been in Galle, one wicket brought two, and Dickwella, thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s chatter and Prasidh Krishna‘s fiery spell, was the next to walk back to the pavilion. The writing was very much on the wall as only four wickets separated India from a convincing win, but the bowlers knew hard work would be required, just as Dhruv Jurel predicted in a post-day press conference.The lunch break, however, flipped a different switch. India took just 36 minutes to pick up the remaining wickets. India couldn’t have timed it better as heavy rain arrived moments after the players shook hands. The ground staff wasn’t in the rush that Suthar was after the break, as they were happy to let the ground recover from the wear and tear of the last five days.After another match-winning performance with the ball, Suthar was busy posing with the ball and receiving congratulatory pats from his teammates. Not only did he outbowl the two senior spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, but he also served another reminder of why he is the all-weather finger spinner India were craving.Suthar showed his class in different passages of play, and his control over different ball conditions reiterated why the selectors and team management rate him highly and are in no mood to rob him of the crucial game time he deserves. Colombo will have another round of Playing XI discussions, but Suthar has ensured that he won’t be a talking point when India assemble to plan for a possible whitewash.
