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Indian veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja praised young all-rounder Manav Suthar's bowling on day three of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle, calling his spell's first-ever delivery which got him a wicket as a "left-arm spinner's dream ball".
A four-wicket haul from Suthar and completion of 350 Test wickets by Jadeja was the highlight of a spin-dominated day three of the Galle Test, which saw Sri Lanka put up a fight with a resilient knock from Niroshan Dickwella and a century from Sonal Dinusha, but everything around them seemed to be falling apart against Indian spinners. Suthar's first delivery of his spell earned him the prized wicket of veteran Dinesh Chandimal, with the delivery generating sharp turn and bounce after drifting in, landing into the safe hands of wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Speaking in a video posted on BCCI's official website, Jadeja called the delivery a "dream ball" for a left-arm spinner and enjoyed watching the delivery personally. "I saw you bowl for the first time in a Test match. The ball that was coming out of your hand was the very first ball. Actually, it was a very high-quality ball (that dismissed Chandimal). As a left-arm spinner, I watch a lot of things on TV," he said. "But the live experience that I had, the first ball that came out of the hand and the revs on the ball, after seeing that, I felt that I got to see a proper left-arm spinner's dream ball," he added. Suthar congratulated Jadeja on joining the elite list of bowlers with 350 Test scalps, making him one of the most successful spinners and all-rounders in Test history. Explaining his mindset while bowling, Jadeja said that he could notice the ball spinning from the front and tried to bowl more on the stumps and to left-handers from round the wicket. "My mindset was that when they were bowling in the first inning, I felt that the ball was spinning from the front as well. So, it was not so easy for the batsman that you can go and easily defend every ball. And like, on every spinner's ball, something or the other thing. Batters were getting beat up and down. It was turning. So, I was trying to put more of a stump line, and bowl to the lefties from round the wicket," he said. Despite Sonal Dinusha's maiden Test hundred on Day 3 of the first Test match, Sri Lanka could only make 284 in the first innings in response to India's 462, and the Shubman Gill-led side took a big lead of 178 runs in Galle. Dinusha and the wicketkeeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella added 146 runs for the sixth wicket and kept Indian bowlers at bay, but the seamer Prasidh Krishna dismissed Dickwella at the score of 80 runs in the 62nd over. Sonal stuck around to get a ton, but Suthar (4/76) and Jadeja (3/57) denied Sri Lanka a chance to score bigger. (ANI)
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