Centuries by Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir and an unbeaten 85 by Rahul Dravid helped India to post a mammoth 417 for two at stumps on the opening day of the second Test Match against Sri Lanka on a batting paradise here at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur yesterday. Prior to the game, the curator in Green Park had predicted that the track will suit bowlers more than it did in Ahmedabad, but other than the slight assistance the seam bowlers received in the first hour of the morning, the track turned out to be a nightmare for bowlers as the Indians made maximum use of winning the toss.

A 233 run stand for the first wicket, a 137 runs stand for the second wicket and an unbroken 47 run stand for the third wicket enabled India to post their highest score in a single day, during a Test Match.

Chanaka Welagedara and Angelo Mathews bowled well and kept things tight in the morning. Welagedara even took the outside edge of Sehwag before the batsman had opened his account in the very first over of the morning. But wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene dived in front of Mahela Jayawardene, blocking the first slip’s view, and hence a straight forward chance was put down. The reprieve would prove to be extremely costly for the Sri Lankans.

Sehwag also survived an extremely close leg before shout off Welagedara when on five. His attacking stroke play in the first Test had come in for some criticism and he was just happy to block and play watchfully for the first hour. At one point, Gambhir was unbeaten on 24 while Sehwag had only made six.

But the introduction of spin in the 16th over opened the floodgates and from thereon, there was no stopping the flow of runs. Gambhir made his intentions clear when he stepped out for the first ball of left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and drove him for four. Herath’s first over went for 14 runs with Gambhir hitting three boundaries. He was taken off after just one over and Mendis was introduced to the attack, but the result was the same as Sehwag hoisted his fifth delivery - a terrible full toss - for a six.

India took lunch on 131 for no loss with both batsmen posting half-centuries, having scored at a rate of more than five runs an over. After the luncheon interval they accelerated even further. Sehwag reached his 16th Test hundred and the second against Sri Lanka in just 97 deliveries. That was Sehwag’s first Test hundred since he reached three figures last year in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. Gambhir too reached his fourth consecutive Test hundred soon and proved why he was named as Test Player of the Year at the ICC awards in Johannesburg, a few weeks ago.

Muralitharan picked up Sehwag when Dilshan took a smart catch at extra cover. He made 131, but his dismissal didn’t stop the flow of runs as Gambhir was involved in another big partnership with Dravid. Such was the Indian batsmen’s domination that by tea they had scored at a rate of 5.2 runs an over and none of the Sri Lankan spinners managed to bowl a maiden over despite sending down 58 overs among the four of them.

The track offered no assistance and the batsmen were just happy to rock back and pick up runs at will. Muralitharan’s 18 overs went for 100 runs while Herath conceded 91 runs in same number of overs. Mendis meanwhile bowled 19 overs and 87 runs were scored off him. Sri Lanka saw the back of Gambhir when Muralitharan took a spectacular diving catch off his own bowling showing that even at the age of 37 his enthusiasm hadn’t waned.

In the final session the Sri Lankan bowlers, particularly the seamers, had a better control of things. The new ball was taken in the 87th over, but Welagedara and Mathews weren’t able to make a breakthrough with Dravid remaining unbeaten on 85 and Sachin Tendulkar on 20.

SCOREBOARD

G. Gambhir ct & b Muralitharan  167

V. Sehwag ct Dilshan b Muralitharan 131

R. Dravid not out   85

S. Tendulkar not out   20

Extras: (b 4, lb 7, nb 3)   14

Overs: 90

To bat: V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni (captain), Harbhajan

Singh, Zaheer Khan, S. Sreeshanth and Pragyan Ojha.

Fall of wickets: 1-233, 2-370.

Bowling: Welagedara 18-3-73-0 (3nd), Mathews 14-2-38-0, Herath 18-0-91-0,

Mendis 19-0-87-0, Muralitharan 18-0-100-2, Dilshan 3-0-17-0

Sri Lanka: T. Dilshan, T. Paranavithana, K. Sangakkara, M. Jayawardene, T.

Samaraweera, A. Mathews, P. Jayawardene, R. Herath, A. Mendis, C.

Welagedara and M. Muralitharan.

Toss: India

Umpires: Nigel Llong (Eng) and Tony Hill (NZ)

Match Referee: Jeff Crowe (NZ)