Bengaluru, March 14 : Fighting a lone battle, Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne’s unbeaten 67 helped the visitors reach 151 for 4 against India at Tea on Day 3 of the ongoing second Test at the Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday. India picked up three wickets for 123 runs in the first session. Kusal Mendis and Karunaratne stitched a crucial 97-run partnership for the second wicket after taking the attack to the Indian spinners. Mendis raced past his half century, but fell to Ravichandran Ashwin who equalled South African great Dale Steyn’s tally of 439 Test wickets. He scored 54 runs off 60 balls with 8 boundaries and was brilliantly stumped by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Angelo Mathews (1) and Dhananjaya de Silva (4) did not hang around much but Niroshana Dickwella, promoted ahead of Asalanka de Silva, has dropped anchor, giving solid company to his captain while facing the relentless Indian bowlers. De Silva’s wicket saw Ashwin surpassing Steyn’s tally. The Chennai player now has 440 wickets from 86 matches. The other wicket-taker in the session was Ravindra Jadeja. Sri Lanka are still 296 runs away, with the hosts needing another 6 wickets to win the two-match series. BDN MR
