INDvSL: Dimuth Karunaratne, Niroshan Dickwella keep Sri Lanka afloat at Tea on Day 4

Dimuth Karunaratne produced a rearguard act with an unbeaten half century as Sri Lanka delayed the inevitable, reaching 192 for four against India on the fourth day of the first Test on Saturday. At tea, Karunaratne was on 85, and Niroshan Dickwella was giving the opener company on 48. The visitors still need another 358 runs with five wickets remaining.

Post lunch, Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis (36) continued their partnership for the third wicket. The two batsmen looked to play for time and cut out any aggressive strokes. They did capitalise on run-scoring opportunities, as this atypical Galle pitch didn’t provide much support to the Indian spinners. In all, they put on 79 runs.

Karunaratne scored his 12th Test half-century off 81 balls. Overall, he faced 166 deliveries and hit 9 fours. In doing so, he brought up Sri Lanka’s 100 in the 27th over. In that same over, Mendis survived a DRS review off R Ashwin (0-58) for caught behind as Ultra-Edge didn’t show any deviation.

Four overs later, Mendis was caught behind off Ravindra Jadeja (2-42) as the DRS review was turned in India’s favour, this time an edge clearly detected off the batsman. It became a double blow for Lanka …read more