Twitter Reactions: Dinesh Chandimal's stupendous century puts Sri Lanka on command

Dinesh Chandimal will look to stretch Sri Lanka's lead as much as possible on the fourth day.

By Chaitanya Prakash

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Dinesh Chandimal
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Dinesh Chandimal. (Photo Source: Sri Lanka Cricket/Twitter)

Day 3 of the second and final Test of the series saw the Sri Lankan batters dominate the Aussie bowlers on a turning Galle pitch. The hosts are 67 runs ahead of Australia’s first innings score, thanks to a resilient ton by Dinesh Chandimal. Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews and debutant Kamindu Mendis also contributed with valiant half-centuries.

The hosts resumed from a strong score of 184/2 on the third day but lost Kusal Mendis in the third over of the day, adding just one run to his overnight tally of 84 runs. Unfortunately for Australia, that was the only joy they had in the morning session as two of Sri Lanka’s most experienced batters, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal, joined hands at the crease and added 76 runs before heading for lunch with 262/3 on the board.

Just like the morning session, the visitors struck early after the lunch break as Mitchell Starc dismissed Mathews for 52, who was looking assured at the crease. On the other hand, Chandimal continued on his merry way and was joined at the crease by debutant Kamindu Mendis. The pair stitched an invaluable 133 -run partnership for the fifth wicket, which ended due to the 23-year-old’s reckless shot after playing an impressive knock of 61 runs.

The former Sri Lankan skipper registered his 13th Test century just before the fall of that wicket, as the hosts continued to pile on the runs. Niroshan Dickwella fell soon due a needless shot against Nathan Lyon. Chandimal and Ramesh Mendis made sure that there wasn’t any further damage as Sri Lanka finished the day at 431/6.

Australia are on the backfoot after a lackluster display by their bowlers

The Australian bowlers had a miserable outing on a hot and humid day as they weren’t penetrative enough in their bowling display. The spin duo of Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Swepson were extracting decent turn from the pitch but weren’t accurate enough to trouble the Sri Lankan batters. Alex Carey’s wicketkeeping didn’t help their cause either, who missed a couple of stumping chances on the day.

Australia will be ruing burning out their reviews earlier in the innings as they could have seen the back of Chandimal as the umpire did not send the batter on his way back after he was caught behind nicking a short ball from Mitchell Starc at the score of just 30.

Australia need to take the remaining wickets quickly on the fourth day as a lead in excess of 100 runs could prove to be fatal on this quickly deteriorating pitch. Meanwhile, the hosts would like to add many runs as they can and test the resolve of Aussie batters in the third innings.

Let’s look at how Twitter reacted to the day’s action: 

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