Dimuth Karunaratne defies India with solid half-century

Dimuth Karunaratne produced a rearguard act with an unbeaten half century as Sri Lanka delayed the inevitable, reaching 192 for four against India on the fourth day of the first Test here today.

The visitors still need another 358 runs with five wickets remaining.

Post lunch, Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis (36) continued their partnership for the third wicket. The two batsmen looked to play for time and cut out any aggressive strokes. They did capitalise on run-scoring opportunities, as this atypical Galle pitch didn't provide much support to the Indian spinners. In all, they put on 79 runs.

Karunaratne scored his 12th Test half-century off 81 balls. Overall, he faced 166 deliveries and hit 9 fours. In doing so, he brought up Sri Lanka's 100 in the 27th over.

In that same over, Mendis survived a DRS review off R Ashwin (0-58) for caught behind as Ultra-Edge didn't show any deviation.

Four overs later, Mendis was caught behind off Ravindra Jadeja (2-42) as the DRS review was turned in India's favour, this time an edge clearly detected off the batsman. It became a double blow for Lanka thereafter as Angelo Mathews (2) was caught going for a wild slog at backward point off Jadeja again.

Karunaratne though held his ground and put on another 79 runs for the fifth wicket with Dickewella. The two batted out 22.3 overs until the tea break to defy India's bowling.

Earlier, Sri Lanka reached 85/2 at lunch. The hosts were set a mammoth target of 550 runs after India declared their second innings at 240/3 in 53 overs with skipper Virat Kohli (103 not out) scoring his 17th Test hundred.

Starting from overnight 189/3, Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane showed an eagerness to score runs.

It was obvious that the visitors were waiting for the captain to get to his landmark before putting Lanka into bat again. And to his credit Kohli didn’t waste any time as he reached his hundred off 133 balls in the sixth over of the morning. Overall, Kohli faced 136 balls and hit five fours as well as a six.

In doing so, he equalled the records of former Indian skipper Dilip Vengsarkar (116 Tests) and VVS Laxman (134 Tests), who both have 17 Test hundreds. Kohli reached his milestone in only his 58th Test. The Indian declaration came after the very next over. It was the second highest target set by India in a Test after 617 versus New Zealand at Wellington in 2009.

Kohli and Rahane put on 51 runs for the 4th wicket. In doing so, they became the 14th pair to put up 2000-plus runs in Test cricket for India. Kohli also became the quickest captain to score 1000 overseas Test runs, reaching the mark in 17 innings. He improved Sachin Tendulkar's record of 19 innings.

Chasing 550 runs then, Sri Lanka were reduced to 29/2 in the sixth over. Upul Tharanga (10) was dropped at second slip by Kohli off Mohammed Shami (1-32) in the third over. But the opener couldn’t make it count as he played on two balls later.

Three overs later, Danushka Gunathilaka (2) was caught at square leg off Umesh Yadav (1-26).

Then, Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis came together, and the duo improved on their failures in the first innings to put up an improved show. They added 56 runs for the third wicket on a track that was still not offering enough assistance to the spinners and defied the Indian bowling for 17.2 overs.