Galle, Aug 17 : Indian bowlers led by left-arm spinner Manav Suthar discovered immaculate lines to tear through Sri Lankan top-order, reducing them to 99 for five at lunch on the third day of the first Test here on Monday.
Sonal Dinusha (14) and Niroshan Dickwella (8) were batting at the break, with the hosts trailing by 363 runs.
India resumed from overnight 460 for 9, and added only a couple of runs to finish their first essay on 462 as the Sri Lankans needed a solid start for a strong pursuit of that total.
Lead pacer Mohammad Siraj struck in the second ball of the innings to deal an early jolt to the Lankans.
Nishan Fernando, who was impressive for SLC XI in the warm-up match, could not handle Siraj’s away swing and bounce, snicking him to Devdutt Padikkal at first slip.
At 0/1, the Lankans were on the back foot immediately, and their lot never really improved in the subsequent overs.
Left-arm spinner Suthar was the forefront of the tormentors gang, generating lovely flight, dip and turn to trouble the batters no end.
Suthar got into the act with his very first delivery, finding a faint outside edge from veteran Dinesh Chandimal, which nestled in the safe palms of Rishabh Pant.
Lahiru Udara and Kamindu Mendis, two batters averaging over 50 in Test cricket, looked solid, and the latter even clattered Prasidh Krishna for a pulled six.
Udara also appeared not much troubled as he pulled and cut Suthar for a couple of boundaries.
But Suthar fetched the breakthrough eventually, as Udara’s feeble swish off him went straight to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully. Suthar was exceptional as he found turn consistently above 85 kmph.
Mendis would count himself a bit unlucky as an uppish push off Kuldeep Yadav stuck in the stretched hands of a diving Shubman Gill.
Ravindra Jadeja too found himself in the wicket-takers' list with the scalp of Lankan skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (21), who feathered the left-arm spinner to KL Rahul at slip.
But full marks should be given to Indian bowlers to make the ball do all kinds of tricks on a surface that is still good for batting barring a bit of turn and bounce.
