India vs Sri Lanka 2017: 1st Test day 4, 5 talking points
Sri Lanka, set a mammoth 550 to win and a near two full days to survive the Test, lost by 304 runs in spite of Dimuth Karunaratne's spectacular effort to bring the Lankans back into the game. Jadeja and Ashwin took three wickets each as Karunaratne and Dickwella proved to be the only two to offer some resistance from the hosts. However, once the 101 run stand was broken, Lanka were all at sea.
Earlier, Virat Kohli had raced to his 17th Test hundred in the company of Ajinkya Rahane to set Lanka 550 for victory. Sri Lanka started off on a sad note, losing Upul Tharanga and Gunathilaka to poor shots before Mendis and Karunaratne offered some resistance. Jadeja broke through with two wickets including that of Mathews before Dickwella and the opener strung together a 101 run partnership.
Once Dickwella departed, the end was near and Ashwin dismissed Karunaratne for 97 before getting rid of Pradeep two balls later to seal the Test for India.
Brief Scores: India 600 (Dhawan 190, Pujara 153) & 240/3 (Kohli 103*, Mukund 81) beat Sri Lanka 291 (Perera 92, Jadeja 3/67) and 245 (Karunaratne 97, Jadeja 3/71, Ashwin 3/65)
Take a glance at the talking points from day 4 of the Galle Test.
#5 Kohli slams 17th Test century
Virat Kohli is a specialist when it comes to making opposition wither off. He has a superb conversion rate in Test cricket with his 14 half-centuries overshadowed by 17 Test tons. With India firmly in the driving seat in the Test match, Kohli had all the freedom to notch up another effortless ton.
That this century came after eight poor scores would do India a world of good given that the series has just started out. It was also his 10th Test ton as skipper. He started with fireworks on Day 4 with 51 runs added in 6.3 overs in the morning session as he went about setting up the declaration along with Ajinkya Rahane, with whom he completed 2000 runs in Test cricket.