How India unravelled Sri Lanka's fifth-day resistance

Dark clouds rushed over the Galle cricket stadium at around 1:20 PM on Wednesday. There was a looming threat of rain when Manav Suthar held up the ball. There were three cameramen orbiting him and he wasn't quite sure which one to look at. These aren't drills he's used to. For a moment he held the ball seam up and then got conscious of who and what he really was. The grip on the ball changed – two fingers split around the seam. And he settled on a smile he was finally convinced with.

Just five minutes before the overheads had turned grey, Suthar broke away from India's celebrations and walked to the batter's end. He had his eye on the ball; the one which earned him his first overseas six-wicket haul. It was lying there because Suthar had just cleaned up Keshara Nuwantha to lead India to a 165-run win.

A Day 5 like this often has a few pressing questions for the batters: How long can you defy? Can you keep the outside edge away from the ball? Can you play with soft hands and out of the reach of vulturous close-in catchers? How about doing that for an entire day? It's unnerving and exhilarating, depending on the side of the fence you're on.

Dhananjaya de Silva and Sonal Dinusha were up for it at the start. The surface, even on the final day, didn't offer so much turn that it'd ridicule batters and leave no scope for a fair fight. When the day began, the ball was 34 overs old, and soft. Sri Lanka had precedence for optimism. In the first innings, they picked up the pieces from 90/5 in the 27th over and had a partnership going when the ball had gone similarly soft. If they could pull that off again, India would've had much to do in half a day's play with a new ball.

For the first hour and a half, Sri Lanka were on track. Only twice in this Test match had Dhananjaya de Silva truly faltered against spin – first when he nicked one to slip off Jadeja in the first innings, and then when he repeated it in the second, but off a no-ball.

"I think he's very consistent. From the same place just using subtle variations, he's able to do that through the day" – KL Rahul on Manav Suthar

On the fifth morning, Dhananjaya was intent on making India pay for the reprieve from the previous evening. He looked assured playing forward and back, leaving very little room for length errors from the spinners. He also swept well and was largely in control until one from Jadeja turned a little more than he anticipated and squared him up. The urge to shake off that loss of control and be proactive kicked in, and he ended up top-edging a quicker, fuller ball to short fine leg with a sweep.

Niroshan Dickwella joined Dinusha looking to complete Sri Lanka's comeback arc that had begun a couple of days earlier. But India's relentlessness didn't allow that dramatic narrative to develop. After a lot of disciplined bowling, they'd found a sliver of an opening and were determined to prise it wider.

India's plan for Dickwella this time was to bowl bouncers and simply rile him up. They did what Sri Lanka had done to Rishabh Pant, but much better. Krishna dug the ball in with boundary riders at deep backward point, third man, fine leg and deep square leg. Inside the circle, Yashasvi Jaiswal was on the task.

Between deliveries, Jaiswal walked up to Dickwella and goaded him to hit big over square leg in exchange for an IPL contract. Dickwella humoured him but didn't take the bait. His eyes were on the cover boundary instead. On the ball before his dismissal, he made room and punched a straight one through that region for two as the deep point fielder ran across to cut it off. Jaiswal was in Dickwella's ears again, with the same request: one six over square leg, please.

Dickwella didn't give in, but Krishna's subtle shift in line got him anyway. The pacer kept it short again, but went closer to the batter, who moved away and aimed at the cover fence once more. But this time, he was cramped by the change in line, and edged the ball behind to Rishabh Pant, triggering the beginning of the end for Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka had started the day at 84/4 with stoic determination to save the game. Two late wickets in the morning session ought to have shaken that belief but head coach Gary Kirsten didn't let that flickering flame die out. Dinusha returned from the break with that same conviction, while debutant Nuwantha didn't let first-innings-like nerves get to him. They tried to settle in, but India switched angles. All of India's spinners went round the wicket to the left-handed Dinusha, making the sweep a risky outlet with two close-in catchers stationed on the leg side.

Suthar picked four wickets in the space of 10 balls

Dinusha, only four Tests old, was admirably solid for a rookie batter in this Test. He followed a 168-ball effort in the first innings with a 128-ball one in the second. Yet he fell against the run of play, clipping a tossed-up length delivery from Suthar onto his pads and into the hands of the only remaining close catcher at leg gully. In the next 15 deliveries, Suthar showed why, in only his second Test, he belonged at this level.

Prabath Jayasuriya got a 92.7kmph delivery first up that was simply too loaded for the lower-order batter to negotiate. It was 5kmph quicker than the previous ball, drifted in, gripped off the surface and turned just enough to take the top of off-stump. Even if he tried, Suthar couldn't have asked more of a single delivery.

"I think whatever we've played [of him] in the nets, it's the subtle variations from the same action [and] from the same angle," KL Rahul said of Suthar's strengths. "Without changing his arm speed he's able to bowl slower and with the same arm speed he's able to bowl quicker as well."

Suthar's slowest and fastest delivery in the game were 31kmph apart, both delivered with the same, flowing action. Shubman Gill also got him to bowl a lot from the Fort End at the venue, to maximise the cross winds for his drift.

"Here in Galle when the wind was blowing from one side, he used that drift really well and from there the ball straightens or turns in, so that's something that he's always done," Rahul added.

Suthar's fast start in the format has led to inevitable comparisons with Ravindra Jadeja. Beyond the obvious similarity of both being left-arm spinners, there's so much to tell them apart stylistically. Yet, one of Rahul's observations of the Rajasthan spinner's game screams Jadeja.

"I think he's very consistent. From the same place just using subtle variations, he's able to do that through the day. Then the batters will also think that if he's not budging, I'll have to do something. When you get a batter in that sort of mindset, you win that contest," Rahul offered.

"I think his greatest thing is his pace that he bowls at and his consistency to always challenge all modes of dismissals. Because of the line that he bowls, LBW comes into play. If it turns a little, there's opportunity for caught behind and bowled too. That's a special skill to have."

Suthar picked a third wicket in that over when Lahiru Kumara defended forward playing for the turn that never came and feathered the ball behind. In his next over, Suthar once again slipped in a quicker one to end Keshara's – and Sri Lanka's – fight.

At 1:25 PM, a heavy downpour began. But it was inconsequential, almost mocking the home team. Sri Lanka's defiance simply hadn't lasted long enough. Neither for India to need the new ball nor for the showers to keep them indoors and add another twist to a fifth-day finish.