Tilana Kandamby slammed a lucky 60 off 76 balls before medium pacer Tharanga Lakshita grabbed three wickets to put Sri Lanka-A in the driver's seat on the second day of the third 'Test' match against India-A at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.

The visitors, resuming their first innings on 134 for four after bowling out India A for a paltry 172, made 226 off 66 overs to take a crucial 54-run first innings lead.

In their second outing, India 'A' batsmen again fared poorly as they were bowled out for 206, Hemang Badani topscoring with 49 and Lakshita picking 3 for 39.

At stumps, Sri Lanka 'A' were six for no loss in one over in their second innings.

Earlier, in the first innings, Naveed Nawaz (47, 83b, 4x4, 1x6) and Anushka Polonowita (42, 79b 7x4) added 67 runs off 19 overs for the fifth wicket and then Kandamby, who was dropped twice, added another 62 runs with Omesh Wijesiriwardene (22, 41b, 3x4) for the eighth wicket to give respectability to the Sri Lanka 'A' total.

Kandamby was first dropped by Gautam Gambhir at point off paceman Amit Bhandari when on one with the team total reading 140 for five and then Murali Kartik dropped him at mid-on off Bhandari when on 53.

The India-A bowlers, particularly the seamers Bhandari and Trivedi bowled their heart out but failed to get full support from their fielders.

Trivedi, who bowled a fine line and length, was the pick of the India-A bowlers taking four for 23 from eleven overs and probably could have restricted the visitors if he was brought much earlier by skipper Das.

Bhandari (three for 55) and left arm spinner Kartik (three for 78) gave him good support.

The India 'A' batsmen refused to learn their lessons from their first innings debacle and repeated the same mistakes and perished.

Only left hander Hemang Badani (49 off 81 balls), who came in at number seven, looked like playing a long innings despite being dropped on 41 by wicketkeeper Jayawardene off Lakshita with the score reading 179 for eight. He was finally trapped leg before the wicket by Lakshita for 49 which contained eight boundaries.

He also added a valuable 44 runs, the highest partnership in the second essay, for the ninth wicket with Siddharth Trivedi (19 off 45 balls with three fours).

Earlier, Das and Gambhir had added 33 runs for the opening stand in 10.1 overs before both fell for 19 and 18 runs respectively.

Ambati Rayudu was the second highest scorer with 34 off 49 balls with a single hit to the fence while Mohammed Kaif (4), left hander Rohan Gavaskar (12), Ajay Ratra (13) and Kartik (12) could not make any substantial contributions to the team total.

At stumps Taranga Parnavitarna (batting on 6) and Ian Daniels (0) were at the wicket.

Scoreboard

India 'A' first innings: 172 all out
 Sri Lanka 'A' first innings:
 T Paranavitarne lbw b M Kartik       18
 Ian Daniel c A Ratra b S Trivedi     10
 J Mubarak c A Rayudu b M Kartik      12
 N Nawaz c Das b A Bhandari           47
 P Jayawardene lbw b M Kartik          6
 A Polonowita b A Bhandari            42
 T Kandamy c sub (Sriram) b S Trivedi 60
 R Herath c A Ratra b A Bhandari       0
 O Wijesiriwardene b S Trivedi        22
 L Malinga  b S Trivedi                0
 T Lakshita not out                    3
Extras (LB-4, NB-2)                   6
Total (all out off 66 overs)         226
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-32, 3-43, 4-69, 5-136, 6-149, 7-161, 8-223, 9-223.
Bowling: S Trivedi 11-5-23-4, A Bhandari 18-5-55-3,
M Kartik 18-3-78-3, A Mishra 13-0-62-0, A Rayudu 1-0-4-0.

India-A second innings:
 S S Das run out                             19
 G Gambhir lbw b Lakshita                    18
 M Kaif c P Jayawardene b O Wijesiriwardene   4
 A Rayudu c P Jayawardene B L Malinga        34
 R Gavaskar J Mubarak b R Herath             12
 A Ratra b Malinga                           13
 H Badani lbw b Lakshita                     49
 M Kartik run out                            12
 A Mishra c P Jayawardene b Wijesiriwardene   1
 S Trivedi C Jayawardene b Lakshita          19
 A Bhandari not out                           6
Extras (lb-7, nb-12)                        19
Total (allout off 62.1 overs)              206
Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-50, 3-58, 4-81, 5-109, 6-122,
7-147, 8-147, 9-196.
Bowling: T Lakshita 14.1-2-39-3, L Malinga 11-3-37-2, R
Herath 20-4-73-1, O Wijesiriwardene 11-3-31-2, T Kandamby
1-0-10-0, J Mubarak 5-0-9-0.

Sri Lanka-A second innings:
 T Parnavitarna batting            6
 I Daniels batting                 0
 Total (for no loss in 1 over)     6
 Bowling: A Bhandari 1-0-6-0.