Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews hit a century before India fought back to assume control of the second Test at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo yesterday.
The tourists, seeking a series-leveling win after losing the first Test in Galle, ended Sri Lanka’s first innings at 306 after tea on the third day in reply to their own 393.
India closed the day at 70-1 in their second knock, an overall lead of 157 runs with nine wickets in hand on the slow, wearing pitch that promises to help spinners on the last two days.
Photo: AP
Murali Vijay was unbeaten on 39 and Ajinkya Rahane was on 28, the pair having put on 67 runs for the second wicket after Lokesh Rahul was bowled by Dhammika Prasad off the fifth ball.
The duo saw off the last five overs in fading light as play was extended by more than an hour due to a rain interruption after lunch.
Mathews hit a glorious 102 to lift his team to a strong position before India turned the tables after a barren morning session.
Sri Lanka, who started the day at 140-3, were cruising at 241-3 soon after lunch when India hit back to take the last seven wickets for 65 runs.
The collapse started soon after Mathews notched up his sixth Test century with a reverse-hit boundary against off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra finished with four wickets, while seamer Ishant Sharma and Ashwin claimed two each.
Mathews and his overnight partner Lahiru Thirimanne batted through the morning session to put on 127 for the fourth wicket before Sharma claimed two wickets in the space of three overs after the break.
Sharma had left-handed Thirimanne caught behind by Wriddhiman Saha for 62 and then dismissed first Test hero Dinesh Chandimal for 11, who was caught at second slip by Rahul.
All-rounder Stuart Binny, who was added to the touring squad before this match, claimed his first success after going wicketless in three previous Tests when he forced Mathews to edge a catch to the slips.
Mishra struck in the next over by having Dhammika Prasad caught in the slips to make Sri Lanka 289-7.
ASHES
Adam Lyth’s miserable Ashes series continued as England were made to follow-on by Australia in the fifth and final Test at The Oval yesterday.
At lunch on the third day, England were 31-1 in their second innings — still a huge 301 runs behind Australia’s first innings 481, which featured captain-in-waiting Steven Smith’s 143.
England captain Alastair Cook was 12 not out and Ian Bell unbeaten on naught.
England at least had the consolation of having won the Ashes at 3-1 up in the five-match series.
Lyth, desperate for a big score to cement his England place, fell for 10 when the left-hander edged a good length ball from Peter Siddle that cut away off the pitch to Australia captain Michael Clarke at second slip.
England were then 19-1, with Lyth having managed just 115 runs in nine innings this series at an average of less than 13.
Fast-medium bowler Siddle, whose recall to the side for this match — his first of this Ashes — was slammed as a “panic” measure by Australia great Shane Warne, had lunch figures of one for one in six overs, including five maidens. Players from both sides wore black armbands in memory of Australia’s Arthur Morris, one of Test cricket’s greatest opening batsmen and a member of Don Bradman’s celebrated 1948 “Invincibles,” whose death at the age of 93 was announced yesterday.
England resumed on 107-8 in their first innings, having lost seven wickets for just 46 runs during Friday’s evening session.
That left them 374 runs behind.
Their collapse was not as bad as Australia’s rapid decline to 60 all out on the first morning of the fourth Test at Trent Bridge, a match England went on to win by an innings and 78 runs to regain the Ashes on the back of Stuart Broad’s stunning eight for 15.
However, Friday’s clatter of wickets — where several batsmen contributed to their own downfall with reckless shots — made a mockery of the ambition of Cook’s side to become the first England team to win four Tests in a home Ashes series.
Moeen Ali and Mark Wood, both eight not out overnight, hit out in sunny conditions ideal for batting during a ninth-wicket partnership of 57.
However, they each fell to Mitchell Johnson as the left-arm fast bowler wrapped up the innings with two wickets in two balls.
Wood, all of whose 24 runs came in boundaries, was the fourth England batsman in the innings to fall to a miscued pull shot when he skyed Johnson to Mitchell Starc at mid-on.
Ali was then caught behind for an innings-top score of 30.
Clarke, who is to retire from international duty after this match, then asked England to bat again.
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