Colombo: One a debutant, the other a legend. Suresh Raina appeared to have as mature a head on his shoulders as Sachin Tendulkar. While the former worked his way to a maiden Test hundred, the latter carved out a superb double ton as India went past Sri Lanka’s mammoth total to end the day with 669 runs on the board.
If Day Three was about saving India from danger, the penultimate day saw the pair stamp its authority on the second Test. When play began on Thursday, the visitors were still 60 runs behind the follow-on mark. At stumps, India had taken a 27-run lead with a wicket in hand.
Tendulkar, who led the rescue act with a calculated 108 on Wednesday, cracked his fifth double century while Raina, who replaced an unfit Yuvraj Singh, became the ninth Indian to score a hundred on debut.
Skipper MS Dhoni (76) and Abhimanyu Mithun (41) made valuable contributions.
Yes, the wicket is a batsman’s paradise but with the untiring Lankans around, you can take nothing for granted. Tendulkar and Raina displayed high levels of concentration. Tendulkar handled Ajantha Mendis quite easily. He made debutant Suraj Randiv work very hard. He drove and swept both spinners with ease.
Raina looked anything but a rookie. The southpaw swept the spinners with ridiculous regularity. Given the way Tendulkar was batting, many here expected him to score that elusive triple ton. The last time he scored a double ton (248*) was against Bangladesh at Dhaka in 2004. That, incidentally, is his highest Test score.
As always, Tendulkar’s knock was delightful. He played each and every ball on merit. He played a calculated innings but was not afraid of going for his shots. Probably, Raina was inspired by his senior partner. The southpaw went for his favourite cover drives and deposited Randiv over the ropes on two occasions.
Sangakkara brought on his seamers and attacked with a short-leg and gully.
However, the duo handled the pacers quite well. Raina got to his maiden ton with a cracking on-drive off Damika Prasad. India took lunch with the scoreboard reading 477/4.
When play resumed, Raina offered the simplest of catches to Sangakkara, stationed at mid-on. The 256-run partnership between Tendulkar and Raina finally came to an end.
Tendulkar reached his fifth double ton with a classic flick. Just when it looked like the maestro would go past his best score, Tillakaratne Dilshan got the better of him.
