Galle Test: Sri Lanka take 71-run lead at Tea on 3rd Day

Rahane thus shaded Greg Chappell, Hashan Tillakaratne, Stephen Fleming, Matthew Hayden and compatriot Yajurvindra Singh, all of whom had seven catches. Now I know how to deal with situations when something happens to me.

The left-hander edged Ashwin to the slip region where Rahane dived to his left to pick up a stunning one-handed catch. One will have to work harder to get wickets. (Kumar) Sangakkara’s wicket gave us the momentum and immediately (Angelo) Mathews got out, so my motto was to stay focussed all the time in the slips because the ball was turning that time.

Discussions with Rahul Dravid, the most prolific catcher in Test history, had helped him immensely, Rahane revealed. The squad for the first Test features uncapped bowler Vishwa Fernando but is missing injured pair Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal.

Day 4: Let me start proceedings by wishing all fellow Indians a happy 69th Independence Day. Credit to the support staff as well. Chandimal was unflustered. “I didn’t feel anything hit the bat…with that pressure and stuff”, he said.

The day didn’t begin well for the hosts as night-watchman Dhammika Prasad was out first ball of the day to a short ball from Varun Aaron as Rahane took a beauty. Chandimal and Thirimanne played aggressively to add 125 for the 6th wicket. He was caught behind off Pradeep becoming the fast bowler’s third victim.

With Bangladesh starting to show more consistency, one expected the series between them and South Africa, to test the former’s class in the longer format of the game. When you lose your skipper, you lose direction.

Fifty up for India but the visitors are not in a very good state. “The team needed that kind of batting and that’s what I delivered for my team”, Dhawan told mediapersons at the post-match press conference.

“It is my best innings but the value of my hundred will be known if we win the match”.

Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli. He was going to nick a batsman off every delivery he bowled. We respect the opposition.

There were no further half-chances coming for the hosts thereafter as Dhawan-Kohli settled down after an engaging first hour of play that yielded 41 runs. They bowled really slowly. But we weren’t thinking like that. Our intention was to give them as few runs as possible.

Kohli went to his 11th Test century with an off-driven boundary against Kaushal, his first 50-plus knock in 12 innings across all formats since making 107 in the World Cup match against Pakistan in Adelaide in February. Herath just decieved him with the flight and there goes the off stump. Surely the two batsmen could have gone back shaking their heads but rater came out thanking their stars and steely in resolve after lunch. The experienced duo started to milk the bowling around and didn’t concede a single maiden over until the veteran was picked by Ashwin.

Chandimal survived another close decision when there was some doubt about whether a catch came off the fielder at silly point’s boot or the ground. For Sri Lanka, they need to act smart, they need to bring in those bowling changes.