Clinical would be an understatement.

It was the same old story on the second day of the second Test between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo on Thursday. Much like the events of the first day, India started off on a commanding note, lost a few wickets but never enough to induce any sort of panic and put up a massive score of 622/9. Then, obviously, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravinda Jadeja, on a much more helpful surface than Galle, nipped through two Lankan wickets to keep them in check at 53/2.

The numbers reveal the sheer extent of India’s dominance:

Numbers game:

  • India have made a habit of scoring 600 now. This is their fourth score of 600 and above this calendar year and their third in the last four Tests. And, as you can bet, it has to be some kind of record:
  • And just to illustrate how rare this is for an Indian Test team.
  • Another unique aspect of India’s mammoth batting performance was how almost no one had an off day. KL Rahul (57), Cheteshwar Pujara (133), Ajinkya Rahane (132), Ravichandran Ashwin (54), Wriddhiman Saha (67) and Ravindra Jadeja (70 not out) all got half-centuries in the match which mean six Indian batsman got to the mark in one innings.

While both Pujara and Rahane got big scores, the star of the day was Ashwin who was typically fluent and elegant in his 54 while coming back later to take two wickets. And in the process of getting to a fifty, he also bested some of the legends of the game:

  • India were, well, outstanding but Sri Lanka were hardly competing.