Left-arm spinner accounts for Sangakkara and Jayawardene as the home team posts 293/4; Samaraweera unbeaten on 65.
Unlike the opening day of the first two Tests, when India struggled to take wickets and were on the back foot most of the times, their performance on Day One of the third Test against Sri Lanka was better.
With Harbhajan Singh out with injury, the Indian bowlers put up a decent fight and ended the day on an even note with Pragyan Ojha picking up two wickets at the P Sara Oval here on Tuesday.
However, Sri Lanka too were up to the task with some stubborn batting from captain Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera, with each of them scoring a half-century. At stumps, the hosts were 293 for four with Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews at the crease.
Trailing the series 0-1, captain MS Dhoni lost the toss for eighth consecutive time and was asked to field. But Indian seamers wouldn’t have complained much as they got some purchase out of the wicket. The track also offered good turn and bounce to the spinners as the day progressed.
Indian pacers Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun made good use of the new ball, cutting and swinging it to keep the batsmen guessing. The early morning moisture and the breeze helped as openers Tharanga Paranawitana and Tillakaratne Dilshan were kept on their toes. But they did not make any mistakes and left the good deliveries alone.
However, Tharanga, who scored back-to-back centuries in the series, succumbed to an away going beauty from Sharma edging it to Dhoni in the fourth over.
Later, Sangakkara steadied the ship with Dilshan. Once the wicket dried up, they went after the bowling. Dilshan toyed with the seam attack with drives on the front foot of anything pitched full and cutting the ones bowled any shorter.
Dhoni replaced Mithun with Mishra, who started off well with a maiden over. But he was thrashed in the next over by Sangakkara who sent him for a boundary and followed it up with a six of the penultimate delivery.
Sangakkara got a reprieve on 23 when an outside edge off Mithun was spilled by Suresh Raina at third slip. The exuberant fielder lunged to his right in his attempt to catch the ball, which was travelling towards the left of VVS Laxman at second slip.
A little later, Dilshan stepped out for a drive against Ojha but Murali Vijay grabbed the opportunity to run the opener out, bringing Lanka down to 102/2. The pair added 87 runs.
Dilshan’s run-out slowed down the scoring rate. But the experienced pair of Sangakkara and Jayawardene kept the scoreboard ticking.
Ojha, who beat the edge of Sangakkara quite a few times, tasted success when the southpaw charged the bowler only to end up giving an easy catch to Virender Sehwag at long-on.
Jayawardene tried to consolidate the innings with Thilan Samaraweera. The stylish middle-order batsman played his strokes at will.
However, after reaching his half century, Jayawardene was given out leg-before to Ojha. Replays, however, suggested that the ball would have gone over the stumps. Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews batted well till stumps.
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