Sri Lanka began the day at 140/3 with skipper Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne at the crease. The duo negotiated the morning session’s play carefully and capitalised on the loose deliveries but putting them away to the boundary. Indian spinners went past the outside edge of the bat couple of times and were very unfortunate to take the edge.
Both Thirimanne and Mathews brought up their half centuries and registered a 100 run stand between them putting Sri Lanka in a comfortable position with 7 wickets in the tank. Sri Lanka went on to Lunch at 224/3.
After a struggling morning session, Indian bowlers got the reward after showing immense patience. Post lunch session there was passing showers which halted the play for couple of minutes. Luckily Rain didn’t play spoilsport as the play continued within few minutes.
Ishant Sharma provided the much-needed breakthrough after toiling hard. Thirimanne who looked well settled in the crease got out to a full-length delivery from Ishant Sharma which moved a bit after pitching. He departed for 62. Things turned around for India later with Ishant striking once again and picked the crucial wicket of Chandimal who got out cheaply for 11.
Angelo Mathews brought up a well-crafted century which is also his 5th Test Century. After getting to a century he poked at a swinging ball from Stuart Binny which saw his way to the pavilion. Mathews was out for 102 which brought Dhammika Prasad to the crease. His stay was short as he got out to a flighted leg spinning delivery from Amit Mishra. Sri Lanka went to tea at 298/7.
India didn’t take much of the time as they rolled out the Sri Lankans for 306. Mubarak was the first one to depart who played down the wrong line to a straighter delivery from Mishra. Herath soon followed Mubarak trying to sweep an off spinning delivery from Ashwin which trapped him in front of the pads and was given LBW. Mishra ended the Sri Lankan innings with a beautiful flighted delivery which drew Kaushal down the crease and eventually got him out stumped with Saha doing the proceedings.
India got a commendable lead of 87. Mishra was the stand out bowler for India picking up 4 wickets. India began their second innings in a shaky manner losing KL Rahul pretty early in the first over. Rahul got out to an incoming delivery from Dhammika Prasad which got the inside edge of the bat and went on to shatter the stumps. Newly promoted no.3 batsman Ajinkya Rahane and opener Murai Vijay safely negotiated the day by putting away the loose deliveries.
Apart from Herath who went past the outside edge of the Indian batsman couple of times the rest of the Sri Lankan attack lacked penetration in their bowling. Bad light ended day 3 play with India at 70/1.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 306(Mathews 102, Mishra 4-43) vs India (Murali Vijay 39*, Dhammika Prasad 1-12)