Mathews scores a ton; India edge closer to series win

Angelo Mathews and Kushal Perera shared a crucial hundred-plus runs partnership before India pegged back with a wicket late in the session to reduce Sri Lanka to 249 for six at tea and keep themselves in the hunt for a series win on day five of the third Test here today.

Skipper Mathews struck an all-important century as he put up a solid resistance after Sri Lanka were reeling at 135 for four at lunch, and along with Perera, who hit a half-century, kept the hosts' chances in the match alive.

The two shared a 135-run stand for the sixth wicket but Perera (70, 106b, 11X4) fell just before the tea break to give the visitors a much needed breakthrough.
Sri Lanka now need 137 more runs to win, chasing an improbable 386 with one session and four wickets remaining.

At tea, Mathews was batting on 110 (237b, 13X4) and Rangana Herath was on three.
Starting at 134 for five after lunch, Mathews and Perera looked to play an attacking game and it worked well for them. While the skipper was solid at one end, the debutant wicketkeeper-batsman looked to go on the offensive.

With the pitch easing out and India rotating their bowlers in short spells, the two batsmen made merry at the crease.

Their 50-run partnership came off only 85 balls as Sri Lanka crossed the 100-mark.
In the first hour after lunch, they added 39 runs in 13 overs with the match hanging in balance. Then the 200-mark came up in the 68th over.

On their part, the Indian bowlers didn't lose control of their line and length, with runs not coming too quickly for their discomfort.

But the partnership started to flourish as time passed and Mathews-Perera put on 100 runs off 186 balls. Perera scored his second half-century of the match, reaching there off 89 balls. Although, it was Mathews, who was the star of the day, reaching his second consecutive hundred in the series off 217 balls.

He should have been out LBW at 93 but umpire Nigel Llong denied Amit Mishra (0/46) in the 70th over on account of an inside edge which wasn't there. It almost looked as if India would go wicket-less in the session, but Ravichandran Ashwin (2/63) returned one last time before the tea break to remove Perera.

The batsman threw his hard work away, going for a reverse sweep and hitting straight to Rohit Sharma at point, four overs before tea.

Earlier, the hosts started the day at their overnight score of 67 for three. With the ball still relatively new, Ashwin completed his over from day four evening and was immediately taken off. The pacers then were deployed with Umesh Yadav (2-57) and Ishant Sharma (2-32) beginning the proceedings.

Ishant should have taken a wicket in his very first over of the morning when Mathews edged a delivery behind, but it was off a no ball.

The Lankan skipper then denied any straight chance for the rest of the session as he went on to score a half-century off 118 balls. But prior to that, there were some moments of disappointment for the hosts as two of their main batsmen got out to poor shots on a day five pitch that was still easing out.

Kaushal Silva (27, 50b, 4X4) was the first to get out, in the third full over of the day. Yadav continued his short-ball tactics but aimed it better at the right-handed batsman this time, who didn't find too much space to properly pull the delivery. Instead, he simply gave a catch to Cheteshwar Pujara at short midwicket and he made no mistake.
He had put on 53 runs for the fourth wicket with Mathews.

Lahiru Thirimanne (12) came to the crease then, looking to make amends for a lean series perhaps. He started full of intent to score runs and helped Lanka cross the 100-mark in the 36th over, after which Mathews also hit his half-century.

But his problems began as in the very next over spin was re-introduced with Mishra.
Both spinners were deployed in tandem thereafter, and Ashwin struck in his very first over of the new spell. Thirimanne looked to play against the turn and only managed to lob a leading edge caught by KL Rahul at silly point. This was the fourth time in six innings in this series that Ashwin dismissed the left-handed batsman.

Perera and Mathews then batted out the rest of the session of play before lunch. But despite an easier pitch as compared to the past four days, Lanka were still staring down the barrel as India looked to push on for their first overseas Test series win since beating West Indies in 2011.