Aug. 5: It was left to tail-enders Abhimanyu Mithun — whose batting skills are improving visibly — and Amit Mishra to save India’s blushes and even push the visitors to a slender 11-run lead on the third day of the third and final Test here on Thursday.

By close of play, India had also managed to grab two Sri Lankan wickets to throw this match wide open as a contest. Virender Sehwag followed up his century with the dismissals of openers Tillekaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana, leaving rival skipper Kumar Sangakkara and nightwatchman Suraj Randiv at the crease to see the hosts through to the close 34 runs ahead overall.

With the wicket starting to play tricks, the last hour of was India’s best chance to wrest the advantage and resourceful off-spin from Sehwag dislodged Paranavitana, nicked a perfectly pitched off-break that turned enough to catch a slender outside edge, and Dilshan who was snapped brilliantly by M. Vijay at short leg in the next over.

But much of the credit for hauling India past Sri Lanka’s first innings total of 425 goes to the 64-run Mithun-Mishra eighth-wicket partnership that carried India from 350 at the fall of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s wicket to 414, when Mithun was dismissed. The lanky Karnataka lad has gone from strength to strength with the bat on this tour and his 46 today improved on his 44 in the first innings of the second Test.

Mishra (40) then made sure India took the lead along with Ishant Sharma, who was the last Indian wicket to fall, done in by a shocker of a decision from Australian umpire Rod Tucker. India started the day in the worst possible fashion, Lasith Malinga finding the bottom edge of Sachin Tendulkar’s bat. An unwarranted square cut with no movement of feet led to master blaster’s downfall.

Though Sehwag wasted no time in reaching his 100 off only 90 balls, the celebrations had hardly died down when he too threw it away, checking a drive against Randiv and lobbing a chance to Chanaka Welegedera. It was poor shot selection from the overnight batsmen.

Suresh Raina and V.V.S. Laxman started slowly but slowly picked up momentum in the second hour, with Laxman looking in sublime touch. The last over before lunch from Malinga brought seven runs and the loss of the two senior batsmen was neutralised by the fine effort of the fifth wicket pair.

After the break, Laxman fell to a slider from Ajantha Mendis. The half-century was reached with a neat glide to third man but the same shot to the spinner was taken smartly by Mahela Jayawardene at first slip. The partnership was worth 105 (121m, 184b).

Growing in confidence, Raina was looking set for a repeat of his debut heroics when the unpredictable track played its part in his downfall. A Mendis delivery stopped on the batsman as he checked his shot to a ball slightly short in length.

Dhoni was a victim of poor judgement of length, gloving an intended hook into the hands of the wicketkeeper. At 350/7 it looked like curtains before the resolute stand by Mithun and Mishra spanning 82 minutes and 108 balls kept the Lankans at bay.

Malinga, who extracted searing bounce with the second new ball, had impressive figures of 8-1-23-1 in that spell. But with the tail wagging well, the lead looked imminent before Tucker handed out two horrendous decisions. Randiv never refrained from giving the ball air and finished with four wickets.

SCOREBOARD
Sri Lanka (1st innings) 425

India (1st innings,
overnight 180/2)
M. Vijay c Mendis b Malinga 14, V. Sehwag c Welegedara b Randiv 109, R. Dravid lbw b Mathews 23, S. Tendulkar c P. Jayawardene b Malinga 41, V.V.S. Laxman c M. Jayawardene b Mendis 56, S. Raina c Sangakkara b Mendis 62, M. Dhoni c P. Jayawardene b Malinga 15, A. Mithun c M. Jayawardene b Randiv 46, A. Mishra c Dilshan b Randiv 40, I. Sharma c Paranavitana b Randiv 8, P. Ojha not out 1
Extras (b6, lb6, w1, nb8) 21
Total (in 106.1 overs) 436
FoW: 1-49, 2-92, 3-183, 4-199, 5-304, 6-321, 7-350, 8-414, 9-433, 10-436
Bowling: Malinga 30-3-119-3 (nb4), Welegedara 15-0-88-0 (nb2, w1), Mendis 30-4-109-2 (nb1), Mathews 4-0-13-1, Randiv 25.1-6-80-4 (nb1), Dilshan 2-0-15-0.

Sri Lanka (2nd innings)
T. Paranavitana c Dhoni b Sehwag 16, T. Dilshan c Vijay b Sehwag 13, K. Sangakkara batting 12, S. Randiv batting 0
Extras (lb1, w2, nb1) 4
Total (in 16 overs) 45/2
FoW: 1-32, 2-39
Bowling: Mithun 3-0-12-0, Sharma 4-1-9-0 (w2, 1nb), Ojha 5-0-12-0, Sehwag 4-0-11-2
* Virender Sehwag scored his 21st hundred in 134 innings, that placed him behind Sachin Tendulkar in the century per innings ratio, among current Indian batsmen. Tendulkar has managed a century in every 5.72 innings, while Sehwag scores one in every 6.38 innings.

* Kumar Sangakkara during his unbeaten 12 reached 8,000 runs in Tests. Playing his 152nd innings, the Lankan captain became the quickest to reach the mark bettering the earlier record of Tendulkar, who took 154 innings for the same.