Mathews celebrates after scoring his sixth Test century

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

India found themselves with the upper hand at the end of the third day of the second Test in Colombo even though Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews made 102.

Starting out the day on 140/3, Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne was were only two batsmen to make valuable contributions.

Thirimanne scored 62 off 168 balls, which included five boundaries, before Mathews took over and ended up making 102 off 167 balls, which included 12 boundaries.

Thirimanne hit five boundaries during his knock of 62

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

However, after Mathews was back in the pavilion, Sri Lanka started to lose wickets at regular intervals and were eventually dismissed for 306, which gave India an 87-run lead.

Amit Mishra was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, while Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin snapped up two wickets apiece and Umesh Yadav and Stuart Binny chipped in with one wicket each.

With an 87-run lead in hand, India got off to a horrible start as they lost opener Lokesh Rahul for just two runs when he was clean bowled by Dhammika Prasad.

However, Murali Vijay and Virat Kohli made up for the early loss of Rahul with an unbeaten 67-run partnership before stumps was called.

Vijay finished on 39 off 89 balls, which included two boundaries, while Kohli remained undefeated on 28 off 84 deliveries, which included one boundary.

Prasad was the only bowler to take a wicket.

India ended day three on 70/1 and will continue batting tomorrow at 10:00 local time or 04:30 GMT.