Sri Lanka roar back into the contest to leave India reeling by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Ground:	P Sara Oval, Colombo
Scorecard:	Sri Lanka v India
Player:	HKSR Kaluhalamulla, BAW Mendis, TT Samaraweera, PP Ojha
Event:	India in Sri Lanka 2010

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DateLine: 6th August 2010

 

The fourth day of the third and the final Test was full of turns and twists and finally when the dust settled Sri Lanka was well and truly on top. The pendulum of the Test swung wildly to and forth and when the day ended it was the Lankans who held all the aces. For the Indians it was nothing but defeat that was staring at their face and until a miracle of sorts happen the Indians are done, dusted and buried.

 

Resuming at the Indian spinners were all over the Lankan batsmen. Randiv was trapped leg before by Ojha before the left-arm spinner proceeded to remove Jayawardene with a beauty and Sangakkara with a long hop. Mishra then got into the act as he removed Angelo Mathews, who flicked a full toss straight to Tendulkar at midwicket and trapped keeper Prasanna Jayawardene leg before off consecutive deliveries. At 87 for 7 it seemed that it was curtains for the hosts but Samaraweera had other ideas. First he combined with Malinga to add 38 runs for the eight wicket before the match changing one with Mendis.

 

Mendis displayed enough guts as he batted resolutely and supported Samaraweera well. The pair frustrated the Indians in the second session as the Indian bowlers bowled without any reward. There were occasional play and misses but other than that it was nothing. The pair began to expand their shots as the runs began to come at a fair clip. The Indian bowlers lost their direction and purpose as a bare second session went by. In the third session the lead went past the 200 run mark before Samaraweera was caught behind. Mendis opened up reached his maiden Test fifty and got the lead past the 250 run mark before getting caught in the covers.

 

Indians in reply got off to the worst possible start as Sehwag was out for a duck. Things continued to get worse when Dravid was bowled and the bowler of both the occasions was Suraj Randiv. Murali Vijay was solid in the middle before Randiv struck once again to leave India tottering at 49 for 3. Tendulkar and nightwatchman Ishant Sharma ensured that India did not suffer any more damages when stumps were drawn.