Sonal Dinusha ground out a second-innings century as Sri Lanka forced a draw out of their second Test against India at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Thursday. India have thus won the two-match Test series 1-0, having beaten the hosts by 165 runs in the first match in Galle. It is the first time that India have enforced a follow-on in a Test against Sri Lanka and failed to win the match. Sri Lanka finished with a score of 429/9 in 154 overs.

India had looked on their way to a victory in the second Test at the end of the fourth day when they took a string of Sri Lankan wickets after breaking Pasindu Sooriyabandara and Kamindu Mendis’s resistance. Sri Lanka started the fifth day on a score of 229/6 with Dinusha on seven runs in 37 balls.

He had Keshara Nuwantha at the other end and the pair remarkably ensured that Sri Lanka lost no wickets in the first session. The pair forged a seventh-wicket partnership of 112 runs with Nuwantha scoring 46 in 150 balls before finaly falling to Manav Suthar. Just over 10 overs later, Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Prabath Jayasuriya, thus raising hopes of India attempting a chase with Sri Lanka leading by 142 runs.

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However, pacers Lahiru Kumara and later Asitha Fernando then played their role of shutting up one end to near perfection. Kumara faced 90 deliveries for 12 runs as Dinusha at the other end scored his century in 196 balls. This is just the fourth Test of the 25-year-old’s career and he has already scored as many as three centuries now. Dinusha managed scores of 103 and 133 not out in the first Test against India in Galle.

By the time Lahiru fell to Jadeja, any realistic chances of an Indian win had faded away. India ended up handing the ball over to their batters towards the end of the day, with captain Shubman Gill, who had bowled just seven balls in his Test career before Thursday, bowling two overs and even nearly getting the last Sri Lankan wicket. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel also bowled an over each.