Ahmedabad, Nov 17 (IANS) Tillakaratne Dilshan continued his impressive run with a fine century that guided Sri Lanka to a commanding 275 for three, in reply to India’s 426, at the end of the second day’s play in the first cricket Test here Tuesday.
Thilan Samaraweera was batting on 45 and Mahela Jayawardene 36 as Sri Lanka reduced the decifit to 151 at the close of play at the Sardar Patel Stadium at Motera here.

If the opening day’s honours went to the hosts, the second day belonged to Sri Lanka. First, Sri Lankan bowlers packed off the Indians, who could add just 41 runs to the overnight score, within an hour of the morning session. Then the island’s batsmen, inspired by Dilshan, gave a strong reply.

Dilshan and Tharanga Pranavitana (35) started briskly, adding 74 runs for the opening wicket.

Pranavitana was the more dominant of the two and even though he was troubled by Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, the left-hander hit six fours during his 55-ball stay.

Dilshan was at ease right from the start and drove Zaheer for two consecutive fours to set the tone of the Sri Lankan reply. The introduction of spinners didn’t help India and Dilshan smacked leg-spinner Amit Mishra for two back-to-back fours in Mishra’s first over.

Sharma ended Pranavitana’s innings after the batsman edged an away going delivery to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

After Pranavitana’s dismissal, Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara (31) stepped up the tempo as 118 runs came up in the post-lunch session.

Soon after the tea break, Dilshan got to his tenth century in style, cracking a four off Sharma but didn’t last long as he mistimed a short-pitched delivery off Zaheer and Rahul Dravid took an easy catch.

Zaheer used the bouncers well and in the next over got rid of Sangakkara, who hooked to Sachin Tendulkar at square-leg boundary. Jayawardene and Samaraweera played patiently for their 81-run stand as the visitors ended the day on a bright note.

Earlier in the morning session, Sri Lankan fast bowlers Chanaka Welegadara (4/87) swung the ball and Muttiah Muralitharan (3/87) got a good purchase to pack up India’s innings in 15 overs.

Rahul Dravid failed to add to his overnight score of 177 and played on with a thick edge off Welegadara’s inswinging delivery.

Harbhajan Singh (22) and Zaheer (12) offered some resistance with their 25-run partnership.

But the early introduction of spin did the trick for the visitors. Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath trapped Zaheer leg before wicket while Muralitharan picked up Harbhajan and Ishant Sharma to wrap up the innings.

Indo-Asian News Service

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