Sri Lanka face defeat in first India Test

India continued their fine bowling display and made giant strides towards victory by reducing a clueless Sri Lanka to 108 for five at lunch on the third day of the opening cricket Test here today.

Dhawan said he was happy to eschew his normally aggressive game to play a patient innings that helped his team take a big lead.

– Chandimal’s unbeaten 162 is the joint-third highest by number six batsman against India – the top innings being 217 not out by AB de Villiers for South Africa at Ahmedabad in 2008 and 178 by Graeme Hick for England at Mumbai in 1993.

Chandimal, 25, stitched together another 82-run stand for the seventh wicket with Jehan Mubarak (49) during his 169-ball knock, which included 19 boundaries and four sixes, before the hosts were all out for 367 in their second innings.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra picked up 3 wickets for 61 runs. Herath however kept chipping away at wickets at the other end, deflating any hopes of lower order resistance from R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh.

Wriddhiman Saha (2) missed a tossed up delivery, lost his balance and was stumped to give Herath his five-wicket haul.

India resumed their innings on an overnight score of 23 for one and were soon left tottering at 45 for four, losing night-watchman Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma and captain Virat Kohli in quick succession.

Angelo Mathews gave Dhammika Prasad and Nuwan Pradeep, his pacers, an exploratory few overs, and the move nearly paid dividend as Pradeep took the outside edge of Ishant Sharma’s bat off the eighth delivery of the morning, but a half-difficult chance at second slip was put down.

Skipper Mathews joined former captain Sangakkara, who is playing in his penultimate global match.

The experienced duo managed to keep the tourists at bay for over 90 minutes in the session before Rahane pulled off an excellent catch at slip off Ashwin to send back Sangakkara (40).

Sangakkara, considered one of the greatest batsman, walked back to a standing ovation from the Galle crowd. The Indian batsmen seemed to overplay the threat of the arm ball, either staying leg side of the ball or pushing out in front of the pad. “Rangana Herath is a good bowler but he isn’t getting younger and Tharindu Kaushal has the guile if not the years that his art needs”.

Starting the second session at 108 for five and his team still trailing by 84 runs, unbeaten Chandimal felt that attack was the best mode of defence and showed his intentions early.

Ashwin finished with four for 114, and 10 for 160 in the match.

Sri Lanka began with a deep point in place, looking to build pressure by denying India runs, but there was always a loose ball around the corner. India, on the other hand, would try to wrap up the opponents’ innings fast and win smoothly to get a lead in the three-match Test series.