Mathews, a straight face among comedians

Second new ball in hand, Ishant Sharma bends his back to issue Angelo Mathews a threat. Almost before he can look back up, the batsman meets the delivery like it was a greeting card. The bouncer rises to Mathews' chest. With no hint of fuss or flourish, he clatters it in front of square on the legside. The next two balls, also at the body, end up beyond the boundary.

Mathews' cricket is often like this. There are no airs to it. He has no look-at-me shots. Last week, he played his 50th Test, batted and captained well in it, but barely anyone took notice. His runs come so frequently now, they are almost taken for granted. As the light fades on Kumar Sangakkara's career, he has set himself up in the top-order engine room. Yet another difficult job will pass to him.

Mathews can also sometimes seem like the straight face in a batting line up full of unintentional comedians. On Friday evening, he arrived at the crease after the top four had frozen time with their slow approach and immediately set about shaking the innings awake. The others had poked balls into the infield over and over again. Mathews basically took his partner by the hand and pointed out the vast gaps between fielders. When he started hitting boundaries, Lahiru Thirimanne began to bat with a pulse as well.

"Angelo batted very well," Thirimanne said of the man he shared a 127-run fourth wicket stand with. "We decided from yesterday that we should put together a big partnership. At that time we had lost three wickets, we knew that if another wicket had fallen, at that time, we could have been in trouble. Angelo always says to bat positively. We hit the loose balls and got runs, otherwise it is not easy to score runs on this pitch."

All through the third morning Mathews ensured India's bowlers would not settle the rhythm they had had going the previous day. He stood outside the crease to Stuart Binny's gentle pace to cream a four through mid-on and over cover in the second over of the day.

Though he was proactive today, his runs still crept up on the opposition. They often do. In that, he is a little like Kane Williamson. Unlike the Virat Kohlis and AB de Villiers of the world, he has no distinctive presence at the crease. So the effect is disarming. When he pulls his team out of trouble, he seems to have done it on the sly. He is on 20 one minute, then 45 the next.

There are shortcomings to his game as well. Among contemporary batsmen, he is likeliest to be involved in a run out. And then there are the nervous minutes in the approach to a milestone. Today he soaked up 16 balls to move from 47 to 50. He was quicker through the nineties, but was almost run out trying to steal a single, edged a ball just short of gully, and had his inside edge beaten for the opposition to appeal a bat-pad catch. In the end, he put himself out of misery with a searing reverse sweep to complete his sixth ton. As if emotionally spent by that effort, he edged a tame delivery to first slip next over.

His departure became Sri Lanka's rallying call to mediocrity. Men in the lower order usually bat smartly in his presence, like office workers who straighten their ties and take keenly to their work when the boss is around. When he goes, the beer guts hang out and employees loiter casually by the water cooler.

Dhammika Prasad sent an easy catch to slip off Amit Mishra's bowling. It is difficult to tell by now whether Jehan Mubarak keeps getting superb deliveries, or whether he is making deliveries look superb. He committed to the wrong line, and Mishra drifted it past him, and spun it back in to clip off stump. Rangana Herath and Tharindu Kaushal barely protested before throwing away their wickets. The last seven wickets fell for 65 runs.

Sri Lanka now need to spring another second-innings surprise if they are to push for a series victory at the P Sara Oval. Mathews has scored the most runs, and bowled the most economical spells for Sri Lanka thus far in the game. He will probably have to do plenty more if his team is to emerge from the match with credit.