The Sri Lankan cricket team has been so committed to the cause of winning their first Test in India; they have put in plenty of hard work and on a batsmen friendly track here at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, the only way they were going to do it was by piling up a huge first innings total. It all appeared to be going that way as Tillekeratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara notched up four runs an over during a 115 run stand for the second wicket as Sri Lanka reached 189 for one when two poor shots in the space of 15 deliveries brought the hosts back into the game.

Sri Lanka reached 275 for three at stumps on day two and were still 151 runs behind with seven wickets in hand.

The Sri Lankan bowlers picked up the remaining four wickets for the addition of just 41 runs to restrict India to 426 earlier in the day. More importantly Chanaka Welagedara removed Rahul Dravid without any addition to this overnight score when he forced the batsman to play on to his stumps for 177. That meant, Welagedara, a late inclusion to the side, accounted for the top four Indian batsmen.

Sri Lanka started well as Dilshan added 74 runs for the first wicket with Tharanga Paranavithana. It wasn’t an altogether convincing effort by Paranavithana and having made 35 runs in 55 deliveries with six boundaries, the left-hander fell for an excellent diving catch by wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off the bowling of Ishant Sharma.

Sangakkara then joined Dilshan and the pair added 115 runs for the second wicket in quick time scoring four runs an over off all four Indian bowlers.

Despite slowing down a bit in the 80s, Dilshan reached his second hundred as an opener with his 11th boundary off 120 deliveries.

It’s the efforts of the 31-year-old in T-20 cricket and One-Day Internationals this year that have been highlighted, but Sri Lanka’s Cricketer of the Year has enjoyed a better run in Test cricket having posted five centuries in 2009 – two against Bangladesh, one each against India, Pakistan and New Zealand.

Overall, it was his tenth Test hundred.

He’s also very likely to complete 1000 runs in the calendar year having already got 961 runs at an amazing average of 73:92.

His dismissal, however, will disappoint the Dilshan fans as along with Sangakkara he could have batted the Indians out of the game. On 112, he attempted to pull Zaheer Khan, but ended up hitting straight in the air and Rahul Dravid running from gully called for the skier and took it comfortably.

In the next over, another short delivery accounted for Sangakkara, with the Sri Lankan captain making a mess of the hook shot and the catch was taken cleanly at the edge of the fine leg boundary by Sachin Tendulkar,

Although two quick wickets brought India back in the hunt, Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera consolidated with an unbroken 81 run stand for the fourth wicket.

Their positive attitude helped the team to maintain nearly a rate of four runs. Jayawardene was unbeaten on 36 at stumps while Samaraweera, who got most of the strike, outscored his colleague reaching 45.

With two players who have a knack for big scores as overnight batsmen, Sri Lanka could push on and take a commanding lead. However, after the pair, the tourists’ lower middle order lacks experience and both batsmen will have to shoulder lot of responsibility.

But what will work in Sri Lanka’s favour is that India will not be able to take the new ball until the 11th over today and that provides them with an opportunity to see off the first hour of the morning that has proved to be tricky to bat.

Scoreboard

G. Gambhir b Welagedara 01

V. Sehwag lbw b Welagedara 16

R. Dravid b Welagedara 177

S. Tendulkar b Welagedara 04

V.V.S. Laxman b Prasad 00

Yuvraj Singh ct Dilshan b Muralitharan 68

M.S. Dhoni ct P. Jayawardene b Prasad 110

Harbhajan Singh b Muralitharan 22

Zaheer Khan lbw b Herath 12

A. Mishra not out 07

I. Sharma st P. Jayawardene b M’tharan 00

Extras: (b 2, lb 2, nb 4, w 1) 09

Overs: 104.5

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-27, 3-31, 4-32, 5-157, 6-381, 7-389, 8-414, 9-426.

Bowling: Welagedara 22-4-87-4 (1nb) (1w), Prasad 22-1-106-2 (2nb), Mathews 12-1-50-0, Muralitharan 25.5-4-97-3 (1nb), Herath 22-2-79-1, Dilshan 1-0-3-0.

T. Dilshan ct Dravid b Zaheer 112

T. Paranavithana ct Dhoni b Sharma 35

K. Sangakkara ct Tendulkar b Zaheer 31

M. Jayawardene not out 36

T. Samaraweera not out 45

Extras: (lb 5, nb 9, w 2) 16

Overs: 70

Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-189, 3-194.

Bowling: Zaheer 15-2-45-2 (3nb) (1w), Ishant 14-0-53-1 (3nb) (1w), Harbhajan 20-2-72-0, Mishra 18-0-89-0 (3nb), Yuvraj 3-0-11-0.

To bat: Angelo Mathews, Prasanna Jayawardene (wicketkeeper), Dammika Prasad, Rangana Herath, Chanaka Welagedara and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Umpires: Tony Hill (NZ) and Darrel Harper (Aus)

Match Referee :Jeff Crowe (NZ)