Indian bowlers snared four wickets in quick succession after a fighting hundred by Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews as the hosts reached 298/7 at tea on day three of the second cricket Test here today.
Mathews (102 off 167 balls, 12 fours) scored his sixth Test hundred but the visitors still led by 95 runs going into the break.
There were a couple of rain breaks in this session; the first one immediately after play had resumed post-lunch. But it wasn't a long one as compared to the showers that followed a couple of overs later.
That cost a loss of 33 minutes and play was extended for the session, and later for the day.
Indian bowling made good use of this opportunity as they continued to chip away at the Lankan batting. Ishant Sharma (2-68) was the pick of the bowlers with his sharp line and he was well supported by R Ashwin (1-76) and Amit Mishra (2-35) in this session.
While the off-spinner didn't pick any wickets, he used the second new ball and kept a check on the batsmen. Mishra then returned to trouble the lower-order batsmen.
After lunch, Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne (62) looked to continue their partnership. But Ishant was bowling well since morning and continued in the same vein after lunch as well.
He had a good contest with the left-hander and then finally dismissed him in the 86th over. The batsman went for a drive on a full delivery and had the faintest of edges to the keeper, although he expressed disappointment at being given out.
Ishant then welcomed Dinesh Chandimal (11) with a short ball that hit him on the helmet. The centurion from the first innings looked very uncomfortable and eventually Ishant got his man in the 91st over, caught at second slip by KL Rahul who held on the second attempt after a fumble.
Mathews kept going at the other end and his perseverance paid off. He notched up his sixth Test hundred in the 98th over off 164 balls.
Amid all this, Virat Kohli had to go for some treatment in that over and Ajinkya Rahane was put incharge for that short span of time.
Meanwhile, Mathews couldn't go on to get a big one as he edged Stuart Binny (1-44) to the first slip and was caught by Murali Vijay in the 99th over to give the all-rounder his first Test wicket. Mishra then had Dhammika Prasad (5) caught at slip to round up India's performance in this session with 4 wickets for 74 runs.
