Match Updates | India v/s Sri Lanka 3rd Test : India in pole position, need 7 more wickets to win series

This has been a productive day for India. Starting from a precarious situation, India piled on the runs thanks to handy contributions from Rohit Sharma, Binny, Amit Mishra and R Ashwin. 

For Sri Lanka, Prasad and Pradeep took 4 apiece. This is not a typical Sri Lankan pitch and the pace bowlers are making hay in the green surface.

Indian bowlers too started strongly and three Sri Lankan batters were dismissed cheaply. Ishant took 2 and Yadav took one wicket. But Sri Lanka has fought back nicely thanks to Kaushal Silva and Angelo Mathews. Can they script a fairytale tomorrow to chase down this huge total. It is not impossible but an Indian win look more likely at this moment if all 98 stipulated overs are bowled tomorrow. 

That's all for today. Thanks for reading. We will be back tomorrow with live updates!

Spin from both ends now. Ashwin bowls a short ball and Mathews late cuts him to the boundary. SL-67/3. 

Umpires have called off the play for the day due to insufficient light. Kohli is not too pleased with the decision but India have to come back tomorrow to look for remaining seven wickets. Sri Lanka needs 319 runs to win. Tough but not exactly impossible. 

Amit Mishra is bowling. Some nice variations from him but Sri Lankans are extremely watchful at this stage. SL- 62/3 after 16 overs

Ishant bowling with his heart out from other end. Absolutely brilliant bowling from him, constantly probing the batsman asking tough questions. Good old test cricket on display. SL-62/3 after 17 overs

Ishant is back and this is a tired ball. Silva pulls it to the boundary. Mathews and Silva manages to negotiate Ishant with relative ease. SL-61/3 after 15 overs. 

Not too sure why the spinners are not brought here. A pretty baffling strategy from Kohli. Binny and Yadav are unable to put the Sri Lankans under too much pressure at this moment. The ball is not swinging much and that takes away Binny's effectiveness to a large extent. 

Mathews again creams Binny through cover for a boundary. Some easy pickings for Lankans. Hoping for a change in bowling next over. SL- 54/3 after 14

Some good counter-attack from the Sri Lankan  batters. Both Silva and Mathews trying to force the issue. They are helped by some pretty erratic bowling from Umesh Yadav. SL -50/3 after 13 overs. 

Some pretty poor bowling from Umesh Yadav. Two short balls and Silva easily puts them away to the boundary. SL- 36/3 after 11 overs. 

Ishant Sharma and Binny both bowling extremely well. Sri Lankans just about coping with this hostile bowling. Binny nearly gets Mathews lbw. SL -26/3 after 10 overs.  

OUT! Ishant Sharma gets another one. Chndimal's counter offensive doesn't bear much fruit. Ishant edges to Rahul in third slip who misses it but Kohli shows great instincts to take the catch on rebound. Sharma is going absolutely crazy and why not. He has now got 7 wickets in this test and Sri Lanka are looking down the barrel already. 21/3 after 7 overs.

Ishant Sharma is absolutely bowling a dream spell. This is Ishant at his very best, using his height constantly delivering in the channel of uncertainty. It is virtually impossible for the batters to negotiate this line. He gets an edge from Chandimal but it falls just short of third slip. 

Chamdimal is trying to force the issue here. Three consecutive boundaries off Umesh Yadav. SL-17/2 after 6 overs. 

OUT! Sri Lanka's top order woe continues. Karunaratne is dismissed by Umesh Yadav. A perfect delivery to a left hander, kisses the bat and Ojha laps up an easy catch. SL-2/2 

Indians are all pumped up specially Ishant after his altercation with Dhammika in the middle. He is bowling all fiery. 

OUT! Tharanga is dismissed. He edges and Ojha snaps a sharp catch. SL-1/1. 

Umresh Yadav is gone. He hooks Pradeep and Herath takes a catch. It was not that difficult but Herath made it look extremely arduous and nearly goes out of the boundary. Yadav gone for 4. IND-269/9 

Next batsman is Ishant Sharma and Dhammika Prasad is trying to pepper him with short balls. 

Dhammika and Ishant exchanges some words and some body clash too. Umpires have rushed in to intervene. Mathews, Chandimal and Ashwin are trying to cool things in the middle. 

Ishant indicated towards his helmet. Not too sure what happened there. Some pretty hot exchange between two amiable sides. Dhammika  bowling from a short run-up. Some big no balls and commentators believe this is deliberate . This is turning to be a long over. Massive drama at the fag end of the day. And finally Dhammika gets rid of Ashwin. 

India all out for 274. Sri Lanka need 386 runs to win this test match. 

Back to back boundaries by Ashwin of Pradeep's bowling and he crosses 50. A nearly flawless innings from him. He has played some gorgeous shots making the Sri Lankans look absolutely ragged in the field. It seems like they have virtually given up on this test match and India is just piling on their misery. IND- 268/8 after 74 overs. 

The lead is now over 350. Another Indian lower order has given a worthy contribution. Ashwin has started to show some aggressive intent. It is baffling why Mathews is not getting pace from both ends to finish India's resistance. 

Ashwin is virtually toying with the spinners displaying a wide array of strokes. He just played a delectable late cut for a boundary. Everytime Ashwin plays, he looks like a top order batter. India-252/8 after 72. Ashwin not out on 42. 

Welcome back after tea break. Umesh Yadav is the new man in. Not much urgency shown by either Umesh or Ashwin. The offie is not trying to protect Umesh too. Kaushal causing some discomfort to Umesh. 

IND-238/8 after 70 overs

Just at the stroke of tea, Mishra is dismissed. A stroke of genius from Kaushal Perera who runs out Mishra. Good reflex from the Sri Lankan close-in fielder. Mishra played a good hand of  39. Now to emulate similar feat while bowling! Tea has been taken with India at 234/8. Lead is now 345. Will India continue to bat in similar fashion or look for some quick runs post tea? 

Spin from both end, but Indians are milking the bowling nicely. No effort to show great flair but in a worksmen like fashion Ashwin and Mishra are accumulating the runs. Not much incisive bowling from the Sri Lankans. It almost looks like they are waiting for Indians to make a mistake. Thre match is slowly but steadily going out of Sri Lanka's hands. IND- 223/7 after 65 overs. 

Ashwin and Mishra carrying on in the same vein as the other Indian batters. This has been a good performance from the Indian middle and lower middle order. They have rotated the strike and have made no mistakes to punish the bad balls. Prasad continues to be the stand out bowler for Sri Lanka running his heart out in search of wickets. Spinners so far have been a let down which has allowed the Indian tail to wag so far. IND- 209/7 after 61 overs. 

Angelo Mathews grasses a tough chance. Mishra firmly hits the ball of Kaushal's bowling, and Mathews at short cover fails to latch on to the catch. 

Drama in very next ball too! Mix up between two batters and Mishra is nearly run out. A frantic dive saves him. Almost comical!  IND-198/7 after 58 overs. 

The lead is now past 300. Virat Kohli claps to acknowledge the effort of his boys. India's lead is over 300 and they still have 3 wickets to go. Sri Lanka will have a mountain to climb in the fourth innings. 

Pradeep trying to pepper Ashwin with short balls. Ind- 196/7 after 57 overs. 

Two spinners in the middle batting for India. So far so good, they are negotiating the bowlers with relative ease. Mishra is more of the aggressor here not out on 16. Ashwin on 4. IND- 188/7 after 55 overs 

Naman Ojha is dismissed. He tries to play a stroke inside out, gets leading edge and Karunaratne takes a smart catch, Herath gets the wicket. IND-180/7 after 52 overs. 

Sri Lanka has been chipping away with wickets in regular interval but India has done well to keep the scoreboard ticking. Current lead is 291. 

After Binny's departure, pace of the match has slowed down a bit. Binny and Ojha looking to rotate the strike. Sri Lanka is heavily banking on their pacers to get all the breakthroughs. The pitch has eased up significantly from last three days. One presumes that India will also be looking for a lead in excess of 300 to keep pressure on the Islanders. 

Prasad manages to get an edge off Mishra's bat, but the ball just falls wide of the fielder. IND- 172/6 after 49 overs. 

OUT! Binny is gone. Prasad gets the wicket. A nice low catch by Tharanga in the first slip. But Binny will he happy with his 49. It came at a crucial juncture and has got India to a position of relative stability. He may have also confirmed his place in the side for the next series. Mishra is the next man in. India- 161/6 after 45 overs. The lead is 272. 

Welcome back to our match update in the post lunch session. 

Naman Ojha is playing very confidently. He just swept Kaushal for a boundary. He is in 19 and Binny on 39. Sri Lanka has brought back Perera to get them another breakthrough. But Naman just creams him through pointfor a boundary. Naman races to 23. IND- 145/5 after 39 overs

Lunch here in Day 4. India has added 111 runs in this session for the loss of just 2 wickets.  Kohli was dismissed early but Rohit went on to score a fluent 50 before getting out against the run of play. 

Binny has been a revelation playing aggressively. He is currently not out on 38. Naman Ojha is on 11 and lead is 243 with 5 wickets still in hand. 

For Sri Lanka Pradeep has been the standout bowler getting 3 for 33 runs. Prasad has got 2 wickets conceding 44 runs. The spinners haven't joined the party so far, which is a cause of concern for Sri Lanka. 

We will be back for the post lunch session. 

New batsman Naman Ojha looking comfortable so far. He just cut Kaushal for a boundary. Binny after departure of Rohit is the senior partner and he is showing some restrain in his attack. Indian lead is 239 now and that will certainly please captain Kohli. India will like to stretch the lead to around 300 to really put pressure on Sri Lanka.  IND- 129/5 after 36

OUT! Rohit is gone. He can't believe his luck. He just lazily pulls Prasad's short ball to Pradeep in long leg. IND-118/5 after 33 overs. Naman Ojha is the new man in the middle. 

Partnership between Rohit and Binny crosses 50. Rohit also reaches 50 of only 71 balls. A very crucial knock for the classy Mumbaikar. Binny is  not out on 35 of only 35 balls. Two players who have been favourite whipping boys of Indian fans today coming good in a crucial juncture. 

Binny gets a life! Completely misses the flight of Herath's ball, but Perera squanders a simple stumping chance. IND-100/4. Binny 25 and Rohit on 44. IND- 99/4 after 25 overs

Binny has raced to 21 of 26 balls. He has taken some chances but they have all come off so far. These are vital runs in the overall context of the match. Rohit too looking steady not out on 43. India 94/4 and more importanly lead is now 205. 

There has been lot of criticism over Rohit Sharma's form (justifiably). But he is again showing why team management keeps so much faith on him. He just hit Pradeep for two solid boundaries through the cover region. The balls were poor, but Rohit took the risk of hitting it fully aware that slips are waiting for edge. IND-77/ 4 after 25. Rohit has scored 42 out of 56 balls so far. 

OUT! Against the run of play, Kohli is gone. Pradeep takes the wicket. Tharanga fumbles in the first slip but finally manages to latch on to it. Indian skipper goes for 21. This was the wicket Sri Lankans were desperately looking for. Every time India has been on ascendancy, Sri Lanka has hit back. Binny is the new man in. IND- 64/4 

Dhammika is back in the action. Sri Lanka need a wicket here before these two batters get into their groove. Both are fluent run scorers and can extend the lead beyond reach of the Islanders. 

A classy shot from Rohit, pulls shot delivery from Dhammika Prasad to the boundary. He is now on 34. Skipper Kohli not out on 21. IND-64/3 after 22 overs. 

Indians playing Herath pretty agressively. Kohli drives him for a 3. Rohit plays a false stroke, gets an edge and the ball goes towards the third man boundary for another 3 runs. 

Rohit needs to concentrate, he is just being a little callous in his stroke making at this moment. IND- 56/3 after 20 overs. 

After a pretty sedate start to the day, trust Rohit to inject some action. 

Mathews traps him in front but umpire doesn't oblige the pleading Lankans. The ball was probably going down, but mighty close. 

Just one ball after that, a nervous poke from Rohit and ball goes between the slips to the boundary. IND- 50/3 after 19 overs. 

With pace not having much impact, Mathews has introduced Herath into the attack. 

Indian batters will like to not concede wicket now after doing all the hard work in the first 30 minutes. IND-43/3 after 16 overs. Rohit 20, Kohli 15 

Some good old-fashioned test batting by Indians. Curbing their natural instincts, both are looking to be circumspect. Virat gets the first boundary of the day, clipping Dhammika prasad off his pads for a boundary. IND- 31/2 after 13 

Sri Lankan bowlers are looking to keep the ball close to the stumps. Rohit and Kohli so far offering full face of the bat. Swing as earlier mentioned looks a little less venomous than the last three days. Rohit plays a false stroke off Prasad's bowling. Luckily doesn't gets an edge.  Another lbw shout against Rohit also fails to impress the umpire. IND -24/3 after 11 overs. 

Dhammika Prasad bowls the first over of the day. Not much swing so far in the offering. That is definitely a heartening sign from Indian point of view. IND- 21/3 

Bright and sunny morning in Colombo, so the match will start on time.  The pitch report suggests that there is still some life in the track. So Rohit and Kohli have to really apply their technique to survive the morning onslaught from Sri Lankan quicks. 

Sri Lanka will be looking to get a cluster of wickets first thing in the morning to get India out as cheap as possible.