Manay Suthar landed in Sri Lanka with big promise, delivered with a wicket first ball, and took three more to help India bowl Sri Lanka out for 284, which gave them a formidable first-innings lead of 178. With three wickets, Ravindra Jadeja provided a good helping hand, as did the other three bowlers with a wicket each.

India might have entertained thoughts of enforcing a follow-on in this rain-curtailed Test when they had the hosts down at 90 for 5. But Sonal Dinushanand Niroshan Dickwella took that decision out of India’s hands with a 146-run stand for the sixth wicket as the older and softer ball became less dangerous.

Dinusha brought up his maiden Test century, but Dickwella was still saddled with the unwanted record of most Test half-centuries without a hundred when Prasidh Krishna produced a beauty with a 62-over old ball to dismiss him for 80.

Suthar arrived at the bowling crease in earnestness even though India did waste the equivalent of three overs by coming out to bat at nine down and lasting just four balls. By the time Suthar came on in the eighth over, Mohammed Siraj had made one breakthrough in the first over. Nishan Madushka ended up playing at one just short of a length as it seamed away to offer first slip an easy catch.

Suthar then rattled Sri Lanka with overspin and sharp turn with the new ball. The first ball was perfect, landing on a good length on middle and off, turning and bouncing, and taking the glove of the experienced Dinesh Chandimal. Suthar kept going past the bat with such regularity that it ended up forcing Lahiru Udara to try to manufacture a cut shot, hitting an easy catch to backward point.

You felt Kuldeep Yadav needed an early wicket for the sake of his confidence, and he did do his bit by beating a charging Kamindu Mendis in flight, but Shubman Gill’s assist can’t be forgotten. He dived full length to his left at short cover, and took it one-handed inches above the ground and behind his body.

Jadeja soon joined the party with the ball turning so much that his natural variations were lethal. Dhananjaya de Silva did everything right, though, playing for the straight ball, covering his pad and off stump, and then hoping the ones that turned went past the edge. And they did. Until one didn’t. This one turned less than usual, and took his edge.

Post lunch, Dickwella and Dinusha rode their luck a little bit at the start of the partnership with a couple of edges falling short and a couple of top-edged sweeps not going to hand. However, once they got in and the ball became soft, they swept India to distraction. Dickwella played the regulation sweep – he did that from almost every line – and Dinusha showed a penchant for the reverse and the slog. He even slog-swept Jadeja for a six, which is one of the more difficult asks.

The middle session produced four runs an over and no wicket. It featured a testing spell of reverse swing from Siraj. Post tea, India came out wanting to bowl steady, but Dickwella started with a four first ball off Prasidh, and Dinusha with a six first ball off Jadeja. However, Prasidh mixed it up with a wobble-seam ball, which actually seamed away to take the outside edge of a distraught Dickwella, who lasted hundred balls for the first time in 21 Test innings.

A lucky break followed when a sweetly-timed cover drive from Keshara Nuwantha hit silly point Yashasvi Jaiswal’s knee and lobbed up for an easy catch to make Jadeja only the ninth spinner to have taken 350 wickets.

Sri Lanka still needed 20 runs to go past the follow-on mark, and Dinusha was nearing a hundred as well. A resolute Prabath Jayasuriya made sure he was there when both the milestones were reached, but top-edged a slog sweep off Suthar immediately after Dinusha’s hundred.

Jadeja came back to trap Dinusha with a quick delivery on the crease, and Lahiru Kumara was stumped to give Suthar a fourth. All four of Suthar’s wickets came from the 4-5m length zone, where he stayed for more than half the balls he bowled.

Bad light denied India 13 overs of batting, leaving them with a possible 196 overs in the Test to force a result.

Scores:
Sri Lanka 284 (Sonal Dinusha 100, Niroshan Dickwella 80;  Manav Suthar 4-76, Ravindra Jadeja 3-57) trail India 462 in 116.4 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 167, Druv Jurel 51, KL Rahul 82: Prabath  Jayasuriya 4-109, Keshara Nuwantha 3-175) by 178 runs

[Cricinfo]