Sri Lanka lost two wickets in three overs, and the umpires stopped play for bad light one ball later
India declared on 503 and had Sri Lanka two down inside three overs at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Play was then stopped for bad light, one delivery after the second wicket fell.
Aug 25, 2026
Sri Lanka faced 18 deliveries on Monday evening at the Sinhalese Sports Club. They lost two wickets in them, closed the day on 8 for 2, and left the field 495 runs behind India and fairly certain they should not have been batting at all.
Three overs, two wickets
Prasidh Krishna got the first one. Lahiru Udara had faced six balls for his single when Prasidh pushed one back of a length outside off, held the line and got it to straighten off the pitch. Udara pressed back, poked at it away from his body and edged it. Yashasvi Jaiswal dived full length to his left at slip and took it low.
The second belonged to Manav Suthar, playing his third Test. Sri Lanka had sent Prabath Jayasuriya out as nightwatchman and he lasted seven balls. Suthar had already hit him on the pad once in the over, with ball tracking showing it missing leg by a fraction. He fired a flatter one in on the last delivery, it skidded on and struck the back pad, and Ahsan Raza raised the finger. Jayasuriya reviewed. Ball tracking had it clipping leg stump, which meant umpire’s call, which meant out. He was still flinging his gloves away when he got back to the dressing room.
Prasidh finished the evening with 1 for 1. Suthar bowled one over and took 1 for 6. Kamil Mishara was 5 not out at the other end with nobody to keep him company for long.
Then the light was suddenly a problem
This is where the evening turned sour for the hosts. Sri Lanka’s batters had been complaining about the light for several deliveries before Jayasuriya’s dismissal. Udara had gone in conditions his team-mates thought were already borderline. Both men walked off unhappy.
The part that stung was the timing. Jayasuriya was given out on the last ball of Suthar’s over, and play was stopped for bad light immediately afterwards, without another delivery being bowled. Sri Lanka’s argument is a simple one and it is hard to shrug off: if the light was unfit at that exact moment, it was not meaningfully better minutes earlier when Udara edged to slip.
Nobody is suggesting the wickets were not good deliveries. Prasidh’s was a proper seam-bowler’s ball and Suthar’s was the sort of quicker, skiddier one he has been getting wickets with all series. But Sri Lanka lost both wickets inside a window their own players were asking the umpires to close, and the umpires closed it one ball too late.
503 was the other reason
India declared on 503 for 9 after 138 overs, a total built on Devdutt Padikkal’s 117 and Dhruv Jurel’s unbeaten 115, with Rishabh Pant’s 63 in between. Asitha Fernando took 4 for 106 and looked, for long periods, like the only bowler Sri Lanka had.
Rain shortened the day and cost the second session its end, with the umpires taking tea early at 475 for 8 while the covers went on. The delay is part of why India were still batting into the evening, and part of why Sri Lanka’s reply began at the worst possible hour.
Where day three leaves them
Sri Lanka need 304 to make India bat again, and they are 296 short of it with eight wickets standing. Dhananjaya de Silva’s side have already lost the first Test at Galle by 165 runs, a match decided by Suthar taking 10 for 131 in only his second appearance, so the series goes with this one.
The rain that has already cost part of two days is the one thing genuinely working for the hosts. Against that, India have three days left to take eight wickets and, in all likelihood, another ten after that. De Silva said before the match that Sri Lanka were trying to score runs and take 20 wickets. Doing the first half of it starts on Tuesday morning.