Reuters
Colombo, August 29: Cheteshwar Pujara recorded his seventh hundred and held India’s innings together against an inspired spell of fast bowling by Dhammika Prasad (4/83) on the second day of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at the SSC here Saturday.
Pujara, playing his first test since the Boxing Day match against Australia in December, remained unbeaten on 135 (277b, 13×4) and guided India to 292 for eight wickets before rain brought an early close to the day’s play. Ishant Sharma (2 batting) was at the other end.
Resuming on 50 for two, the visitors lost captain Virat Kohli (18) early but Pujara and Rohit Sharma (26) added 55 for the fourth wicket to prop up the Indian innings in the deciding match of the series.
Rohit fell in the last over before the lunch break, edging Prasad Upul Tharanga at first slip.
After the rain hit first day, Sri Lanka came back strongly in the morning session with Prasad troubling the batsmen on numerous occasions.
India’s scoring opportunities soon dried up and captain Angelo Mathews benefited from the build-up of pressure when Kohli edged behind. Pujara and Kohli added 50 for their third-wicket stand.
Pujara hit Kaushal for three successive boundaries and the runs started flowing for him after that. The 27-year-old reached triple figures with a tight single off spinner Rangana Herath.
After finding Rohit’s edge with the last ball before lunch, Prasad picked up all-rounder Stuart Binny with the first delivery of the second session to be on a hat-trick, which was staved off by Pujara.
Debutant wicketkeeper Naman Ojha (21) then added 54 with Pujara for the sixth wicket before playing a rash shot against Kaushal to hole out at long on.
Ravi Ashwin became Prasad’s fourth victim, reducing India to 180 for seven but Pujara continued to thwart the hosts, adding 104 in an eighth wicket stand with Amit Mishra (59, 87b, 7×4).
Leg-spinner Mishra looked completely at ease against both the seamers and the spinners and notched up his third test fifty to demoralise the Sri Lankan bowlers.
Mishra was finally out stumped to Herath when he danced down the wicket but only managed an inside edge onto his pads with the ball trickling to the wicketkeeper.
SCOREBOARD
India Ist Innings (overnight score of 50/2) R B 4 6
KL Rahul b Prasad 2 2 0 0
C Pujara batting 135 277 13 0
A Rahane lbw b Pradeep 8 13 2 0
V Kohli c Perera b Mathews 18 60 3 0
R Sharma c Tharanga b Prasad 26 65 3 1
S Binny lbw b Prasad 0 1 0 0
N Ojha c Tharanga b Kaushal 21 54 3 0
R Ashwin c Perera b Prasad 5 14 1 0
A Mishra st Perera b Herath 59 87 7 0
I Sharma batting 2 6 0 0
Extras: (lb-2, w-3, nb-6, pen-5) 16
Total: (8 wickets; 95.3 overs) 292
Fall: 1/2, 2/14, 3/64, 4/119, 5/119, 6/173 7/180, 8/284.
Bowling: D Prasad 23.3-4-83-4, N Pradeep 22-6-52-1, A Mathews 13-6-24-1, R Herath 25-3-81-1, T Kaushal 12-2-45-1.