India gained a handy 111-run first innings lead but Sri Lanka hit back with three early strikes to roar back into the game on day 3 of the third and final Test in Colombo on Sunday. Rain stopped play in the final session of day 3 of the deciding Test match.
Here are the statistical highlights at the end of the third day’s play:
Sri Lanka have lost their six wickets for 47 runs — the last instance when India had captured the first five wickets for less than 50 was in 2007 when Bangladesh were 40 for five during their first innings total of 118 at Dhaka.
Kusal Perera’s 55 is the highest score and the first fifty by a Sri Lankan wicketkeeper on Test debut vs. India.
Rangana Herath (49) has registered his second highest score in Tests behind the 80 not out off 93 balls vs. India at Galle in July 2010.
Ishant Sharma (5/54) has set an Indian record for the best bowling figures at Colombo (SSC), surpassing Anil Kumble’s figures of 5 for 87 in 1993.
Ishant’s figures are the best by an Indian pacer in a Test innings in Sri Lanka, eclipsing the 5 for 72 by Venkatesh Prasad at Kandy in 2001.
Apart from Ishant and Prasad, only two other Indian pacers have captured five wickets in an innings in Sri Lanka — 5 for 114 by Javagal Srinath at Galle in 2001 and 5 for 118 by Chetan Sharma at Colombo (PSS) in 1985.
Perera and Herath put on 79 for the seventh wicket — the second highest for Sri Lanka vs India at Colombo (SSC) next only to 194 (unbroken) between Samaraweera and Tillakaratne in 2001.
