Although India's pace trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammad Shami bowled well, Sri Lanka still finished ahead after the third day's play. They were 165 for 4 in response to India’s 172.
Angelo Mathews, who played a valiant knock, though praised the Indian bowlers. "Shami, Bhuvneshwar and Umesh are world class fast bowlers. It was a challenging wicket. All three fast bowlers bowled well. They are very skilful and keep coming at you. You can't relax. If you see the loose balls, they were very few," Mathews was quoted as saying in a Cricbuzz report.
"We need to be mentally prepared and be ready to score runs off them. I think we can. We have a good batting unit. Thirimanne fought very hard out there in the middle. Credit to him for the way he played.
“But 50s won't take us anywhere. We need to go on and score hundreds on this wicket. Hopefully we can carry forward the work that has been done so far. The top order has done a reasonable job," Mathews added.
--By A Cricket Correspondent