Day 4 in the third Test between India and Sri Lanka at the SSC again belonged to the visitors.
India are well on course for their first series triumph on Sri Lankan soil in 22 years after reducing the hosts to 67 for 3 in their chase of a daunting target of 386 in the third and final Test in Colombo on Monday.
Resuming at a precarious overnight score of 21 for 3, India did well to post 274 in their second innings and then leave the islanders miserably placed on an eventful penultimate day.
Rajneesh Gupta presents interesting numbers from Day 4:
1 Number of times has a side scored more than 300 runs on the last day to win a Test in Asia. At Sharjah in 2014 Pakistan made 302 for five in just 57.3 overs to win the Test and level the series against Sri Lanka.
2 Number of Tests in which number 9 batsman scored a fifty in both innings for India (Mishra scored 59 in the first innings and Ashwin 58 in the second). The only other such instance for India came against England at Nottingham last year when Bhuvneshwar Kumar scored 63* and 58.
5.91 Average opening stand in the series from both sides – lowest ever in a Test series of 3 matches or more. The previous lowest was 6.10 between South Africa and England way back in 1895-96.
10 Number of ducks recorded by Sri Lankan batsmen in the series. In comparison Indians recorded only four ducks in the series.
55.33 Batting average at number 9 in this Test – highest for any position!
326 Highest successful fourth innings chase at the SSC – by Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe in 1998. Sri Lanka need 386 in this match.
