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KANPUR, India : India thumped Sri Lanka by an innings and 144 runs on the fourth day of the second cricket Test here on Friday to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
It was the 100th Test victory for India and the biggest against Sri Lanka, bettering the previous win by an innings and 119 runs achieved way back in 1994 at Lucknow.
Sri Lanka, tottering at 206-8 by lunch in their follow on, lost their remaining two wickets late into the second session to be bowled out for 269 at the Green Park stadium.
Thilan Samaraweera remained unbeaten on a defiant 78 off 213 balls after sharing a 73-run partnership with Ajantha Mendis to frustrate the Indians.
But it was India who dominated Sri Lanka right through the match, piling on 642 in their first innings before bowling out the visitors for 229 to take a huge 413-run lead.
India were indebted to Gautam Gambhir (167), Rahul Dravid (144) and Virender Sehwag (131) whose big knocks gave the bowlers a huge cushion of runs.
The Test would be especially memorable for Dravid, who hit his 28th Test century and became the fourth highest scorer with 11,267 runs after surpassing retired Australian captain Allan Border (11,174).
The batsman also moved one place up to be ninth in the list of all-time century makers, overtaking Border and Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene, who both have 27 centuries against their names.
Paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, named man of the match, then chose his comeback Test to resurrect his sagging career, picking 5-75 in the first innings and one more in the second to finish with 6-122.
He had played his last Test at the same venue against South Africa in April last year.
It was always going to be an uphill task for the Sri Lankans, who started the day at 57-4, trailing India by 356 runs on the first innings.
Left-arm Indian paceman Zaheer Khan was the first to strike when he tempted Angelo Mathews (15) into a pull shot after the batsman had hit him for three fours in a row.
The ball took the top edge of Mathew's bat and Dravid, fielding at gully, dived to his right to take a fine catch.
Samaraweera waged a grim fightback, putting on 61 runs in the company of Prasanna Jayawardene, who scored 154 in the drawn first Test at Ahmedabad.
He twice drove Sreesanth to the mid-wicket fence before flicking him down the third-man boundary to pick some easy runs off the paceman.
But Samaraweera ran out of partners with spinners Harbhajan Singh (3-98) and Pragyan Ojha (2-36) combining to send back Prasanna (29), Rangana Herath (13) and Muttiah Muralitharan.
Muralitharan provided brief entertainment with three fours and two sixes in his knock of 29, before being bowled by debutant left-arm spinner Ojha.
The third and final Test begins in Mumbai on December 2.
- AFP /ls
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