12.50 pm It appears India will not be enforcing the follow-on despite having a lead of 309. The openers Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund raced away to the dressing room, presumably to pad up and bat again.
Poor Dilruwan, he's left stranded on 92, having played perhaps the best out of the Sri Lankan batsmen. Batting at No. 7, he wasn't perturned by the skill of the Indian spinners, and he handled the fast bowlers excellently, even against well directed short balls. Assurance like that has been hard to come by for the hosts
JackInTheOff: "Gotta feel for Perera. Left stranded after playing a superb knock under pressure, when everyone around his kept playing our! "
Siva Prasad: "Not enforcing follow-on just to pile on more misery on the Lankans? or the fear of having to chase on a pitch assisting bowlers more every ball??"
Hey, fear is good. Best motivator ever.
Arun: "Good decision not to enforce follow on.. Score 200+ by evening.. Set a target of 550+ and start bowling fresh tomorrow"
With the fifth season of the Pro Kabaddi League starting today, our sister site espn.in outlines the key storylines to look forward to.
CBRLS Kumara b Jadeja 2 (15m 12b 0x4 0x6) SR: 16.66
Ravindra Jadeja from the other end, with slip, leg slip and short leg
END OF OVER:78 | 2 Runs | SL: 291/8
- Dilruwan Perera92 (132b)
- Lahiru Kumara2 (9b)
- Hardik Pandya3-0-13-1
- Ravindra Jadeja22-3-67-2
Hardik Pandya to resume. He's got two slips, a deep point, a long leg and a deep square leg
12.40 pm And out come the Indian fielders, and in they go for the huddle. They have to take one more wicket to either bat again or make Sri Lanka follow-on. Dilruwan Perera has been their biggest pain in the backside, playing as good as a top-order bat,
reading the length early, not premeditating against spin and still using his feet splendidly.
He's 10 short of a maiden Test century...
"Is there any changes in Ashwin's bowling happened recently or others are pitching in equally?" Only that he's gone back to his classical action, the one he worked on ahead of the Bangladesh tour in 2016, as demonstrated in his Cricket Monthly profile piece here
END OF OVER:77 | 5 Runs | SL: 289/8
- Lahiru Kumara2 (9b)
- Dilruwan Perera90 (126b)
- Ravindra Jadeja22-3-67-2
- Ravichandran Ashwin27-5-84-1
Noon That is lunch on the third day. Jadeja was the most threatening bowler this session, mixing his quick fizzers with tossed-up balls. One such tossed-up ball had Mathews scooping a catch to short leg. He then had Herath gloving a catch to slip. Dilruwan Perera, though, has rallied the lower order to hold off India's charge. His footwork against spin and pace alike has been excellent. He hasn't been dismissed for more than 200 balls, having made 29* off 76 to help Sri Lanka topple Zimbabwe at Khettarama. SL need a further 112 runs to avert the follow-on. Be back in 40 minutes.
END OF OVER:76 | (maiden) | SL: 284/8
- Lahiru Kumara2 (7b)
- Dilruwan Perera85 (122b)
- Ravichandran Ashwin27-5-84-1
- Ravindra Jadeja21-3-62-2
Ashwin returns. Around the wicket
END OF OVER:75 | 2 Runs | SL: 284/8
- Dilruwan Perera85 (122b)
- Lahiru Kumara2 (1b)
- Ravindra Jadeja21-3-62-2
- Hardik Pandya2-0-11-1