COLOMBO: Sonal Dinusha and Keshara Nuwantha stonewalled a flat-looking Indian bowling attack for an entire session to take Sri Lanka to 329 for six at lunch, miraculously keeping the hosts afloat on the fifth day of the second and final Test here on Thursday.
Dinusha and Nuwantha have so far added 111 runs for the seventh wicket stand but more importantly batted out 39.4 overs so far in the second innings, thwarting the Indian advances.
Dinusha (55, 184m, 106b) and Nuwantha (46, 172m, 149b) were batting at the break.
Sri Lanka started the day from 229 for six, ahead by a mere 16 runs and ever closer to a defeat.
But the gumption of Dinusha, who made a hundred in the first innings, and Nuwantha ensured that the hosts extended their lead to 116 runs.
The Indian bowlers, on the other hand, added one more chapter to their eons-old struggles against late order batters.
In Sri Lanka’s first innings of 290, the last three wickets had batted 45 overs between them while adding 117 runs.
But the numbers only tell half the tale, as Dinusha continued to be a thorn in the flesh, a term used by spin bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule at the end of the fourth day here.
The little left-hander produced his fourth 50-plus score in as many innings in this series as Indians might just seriously consider writing a calypso for him — ‘We couldn’t out Dinusha.’
The 25-year-old reached his fifty in 99 balls with a single off Ravindra Jadeja and celebrated with a smile and hands pointing towards the heavens.
However, Nuwantha too deserves ample credit to give his partner confident backing throughout the alliance.
The lone chance Indian bowlers, otherwise a clueless lot on the day, created came towards the fag end of the session when Jadeja managed to ping Nuwanatha’s pads but DRS decided that the ball was missing the stumps.