Sri Lankan skipper can stand firm in final Test with India

Third Test
Sky Sports Cricket, 4am Saturday

After a thrilling draw in Kolkata, India batted Sri Lanka into submission in Nagpur and the hosts are 3-10 to wrap up the series in Delhi.

The second-Test scorecard illustrated the tale of India’s dominance – while the Lankans were bowled out for 205 and 166, home skipper Virat Kohli made 213 on his own.

And Kohli’s masterpiece was backed up by centuries for Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma as the hosts powered to victory by an innings and 239 runs.

There are no shortage of candidates for the top India runscorer betting but few of the Sri Lankan batsmen have made a positive impression in the first two Tests.

Ex-captain Angelo Mathews is prominent in the betting but he has had three failures since making a fifty in the first innings at Eden Gardens.

Spinner Rangana Herath top-scored from number nine in that innings but skipper Dinesh Chandimal is worth a bet to lead the way at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

Chandimal couldn’t capitalise on his starts in Kolkata, falling for 28 and 20, but he passed 50 in both innings in Nagpur – a decent effort given the paucity of support he received from his teammates.

The captaincy doesn’t appear to have adversely affected his batting and he made an epic unbeaten 155 in September’s surprise victory over Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

Once Chandimal gets in, he usually makes it count – the lowest of his four Test centuries scored in the past two years has been 126 and he also made 162 not out against India in Galle in 2015.

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