In Stats: Ashwin’s 300th Wicket Milestone & Record Under Virat

India’s win at Nagpur equalled the team’s record for its biggest victory in Test cricket.

Team India has taken an unassailable 1-0 lead in the 3-Test series against Sri Lanka by defeating the visitors by an innings and 239 runs in the second Test match in Nagpur.

After scoring a mammoth 610-6 in reply to the visitors’ first innings total of 205, the Indian bowlers needed just a little under 50 overs to dismiss the visitors for the second time in the match. Sri Lanka, 21-1 at the start of fourth day’s play, were bundled out for 166 – 33 minutes after the lunch interval.

Virat Kohli’s side played like the top-ranked team in the world and reaffirmed their dominance over Sri Lanka in recent times. Each of Team India’s recent wins over Sri Lanka has been by huge margins and this victory in Nagpur equalled the Indian team’s record for its biggest win in Test cricket.

The Sri Lankan camp should be embarrassed with the show their batsmen put up in the second innings. That these players have been picked to represent the country means the selectors rate them and see them as having the talent and temperament to succeed at the international level. But for them to play in the manner that they did on the fourth morning in Nagpur was astonishing; it smirked of poor attitude and showed the players neither read nor respected the match situation.

Certain batsmen – like Niroshan Dickwella or Rangana Herath were undone by good deliveries, while Dimuth Karunaratne was dismissed by a good catch by Murali Vijay. But several others were dismissed playing strokes they will themselves not want to see again. As a result, Sri Lanka suffered their biggest ever defeat in Test cricket.

The end was brought when Ravichandran Ashwin castled number eleven Lahiru Gamage to collect his 300th wicket in Test cricket – in the process becoming the quickest ever bowler in the history of the game to reach the milestone.

Earlier, Ashwin, who collected his 500th international wicket when he dismissed Dilruwan Perera, also rewrote the record for the most wickets taken by an Indian bowler under a particular captain.

If Anil Kumble was Mohammad Azharuddin’s go-to-bowler in the years gone by, Ashwin has emerged Virat Kohli’s main wicket-taker.

The win in Nagpur also means India now has more wins against Sri Lanka than any other team; the win on Monday, 27 November, was India’s 20th against the team from the island nation.

(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT in partnership with #MyRightToBreathe to find a solution to pollution. Send in your suggestions to [e-mail] or WhatsApp @ [phone])