Tea report: Indian bowlers land crucial blows strike after Mathews ton

Following a flat morning at the P Sara Oval, the Indian bowlers hit the straps and bounced back with three much needed wickets to leave Sri Lanka on 298 for 7 at tea. With support from a couple of rain interruptions, Ishant Sharma removed Lahiru Thirimanne and the game-changer from Galle, Dinesh Chandimal to help India peek in at the right moment early into the afternoon session.
Angelo Mathews continued to fight hard at the other with a century, but his dismissal, three balls after reaching the landmark, pegged Sri Lanka back. They still trail by 95 runs, and with their tail exposed, India would fancy their chances of knocking over the remaining three batsmen early in order to escape with a slender first-innings lead.
With the second new ball just one over old, India resorted to a surprising tactic of bouncing out the batsmen after lunch. Ishant Sharma darted in back-to-back bouncers to Mathews, which were sent crashing towards the leg-side boundary. But following a passing shower, Ishant struck gold with the wicket of Thirimanne, who edged a fuller delivery to Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps.
Out walked Sri Lanka's saviour from the previous Test, Chandimal, and was greeted with another Ishant bouncer that struck him on the helmet. He did well to recover nicely from the wayward first over after lunch and continuously troubled Chandimal, who was unsure with his footwork. A few play and misses and Ishant finally removed him when he poked at a length ball on a testing fourth-stump line.
Mathews was joined by Jehan Mubarak and the pair softly began munching singles. Mathews, who's fallen five times in the 90s, slowed down a bit for his last 10 runs. He reverse-swept Mishra for four to reach the three-figure mark but an over later, edged Stuart Binny for his maiden Test wicket. More pressure mounted when the Mishra had Dhammika Prasad edge him to slips.
Earlier, Mathews and Thirimanne buttressed Sri Lanka's progress and played out the first session without losing any wicket. India weren't indisciplined. Just that Mathews and Thirimanne were better. They batted with immense composure and confidence. For instance, Ishant bowled a magnificent four-over spell first up. He bowled 17 deliveries to Thirimanne in that period, of which just three runs were scored. He brought the batsman forward, but the left-hander dealt it well.
In order to negotiate the early movement, Mathews stood a foot outside his crease. He was helped by a couple of gentle looseners from Binny in the second over of the day, which the Sri Lanka skipper dispatched to the boundary.
It didn't take much time for Virat Kohli to replace Ishant and Umesh with Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin. There wasn't a single false shot from either batsmen as they went from strength to strength The way they batted, one would assume that Kumar Sangakkara was unlucky to miss out on a surface getting easier to bat on.
Mathews, in particular, scored at a healthy rate and reached his 23rd half-century in Tests off 81 deliveries. Thirimanne was the slower of the two and was unsettled a bit with Ashwin operating round the wicket. But his fourth Test fifty did well to settle those nerves and help the home team to move forward.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 298 for 7 (Angelo Mathews 102, Lahiru Thirimanne 62; Amit Mishra 2 for 52) trail India by 95 runs)
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