Ravindra Jadeja struck twice but Dilruwan Perera (90 not out) and Angelo Mathews (83) defied India to take Sri Lanka to 289-8 at lunch on the third day of the opening Test in Galle on Friday. Perera and Mathews put on 62 runs for the 6th wicket but the hosts are still 311 runs behind India's first innings score of 600. At the break, Perera and Lahiru Kumara (2) were at the crease.
Starting from overnight 154-5, Perera and Mathews continued from where they had left and extended their defiant partnership. Umesh Yadav (1-78) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-67) got proceedings underway for India, but neither could trouble the duo as they brought up their 50-partnership off 96 balls.
Sri Lanka's 200 came up in the 57th over, and they nearly batted out the first hour without any loss before Mathews chipped a catch off Jadeja straight to Virat Kohli at short cover in the 59th over. There was slight turn available for the spinners on this day three pitch and this wicket was a result of constant pressure built up by the left-arm spinner. In all, Mathews faced 130 balls inclusive of 11 fours and a six.
Two overs later, Perera survived a confident lbw shout off Jadeja via DRS. Originally, he was ruled out lbw but the review came out in his favour, surprisingly. The ball appeared to be sailing well over the stumps, unexpectedly though as seen from Kohli's astonished reaction.
Perera then reached his 5th Test half-century off 94 balls, inclusive of four fours and three sixes. He added 36 runs with Herath for the 7th wicket and another 39 runs with Nuwan Pradeep (10) for the 8th wicket. At the other end though, stand-in skipper Rangana Herath (9) was not so lucky as he went for a reverse sweep off Jadeja and only ended up lobbing up the ball off his glove to Ajinkya Rahane at slip for a catch.
The batsman went in for DRS confidently assuming the ball had hit his arm, but Ultra-Edge replay showed that there was some glove involved. Sri Lanka's 250 came up in the 70th over, as Perera started throwing his bat around and getting runs in boundaries. Hardik Pandya (1-11) came on to bowl close to the end of session, and cleaned up Pradeep to claim his maiden Test wicket.
On day one, Shikhar Dhawan (190) and Cheteshwar Pujara (153) had scored contrasting centuries to put India in command at 399/3 at stumps. On day two, Ajinkya Rahane (57) and Hardik Pandya (50) scored half-centuries to take India's first innings total to 600 runs. Sri Lanka were then reduced to 154/5 at stumps.
Brief Scores
India 1st innings: 600 in 133.1 overs.
Sri Lanka 1st innings: 289 for 8 in 77 overs (Dilruwan Perera 90 batting, Angelo Mathews 83; RA Jadeja 2/67).
