Sri Lanka Dismissed for 425 in First Innings!

Thilan Samaraweera was unshakeable amid testing spells from Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha to help Sri Lanka consolidate the dominant position they had reached on the opening day. India needed some quick wickets to give themselves a chance on a more competitive pitch, but were denied by a solid performance that took Samaraweera to his 12th Test century.

Samaraweera's innings displayed an excellent grasp of the pitch that aided movement as well as turn. He played the ball late, spotted the lengths early and, against the spinners, was adept in his footwork and confident in defence, rarely failing to pick their variations or gauge the extent of turn. And he was opportunistic, dispatching those deliveries that were pitched short. He began with a slash over gully off a wayward Abhimanyu Mithun that just evaded Virender Sehwag, and pulled him again to fine leg. He struck his fifth four off Amit Mishra when gifted a long-hop, punched Ojha through the covers and reached his century with a nudge to the leg side. The comfort with which he batted was a contrast to the struggles of his partners.