Dilshan Leads Strong Sri Lanka Reply

India 426 (Dravid 177, Dhoni 110, Welagedara 4-87) vs Sri Lanka 275-3 (Dilshan 112, Zaheer Khan 2-45).

Sri Lanka edged day two of the first Test against India in Ahmedabad, dismissing their hosts for 426 before closing the day on 275 for three in reply.

Just as on day one, four wickets fell in the morning session, including that of Rahul Dravid, who failed to add to his overnight score of 177, and Tillakaratne Dilshan became the third centurion of the match after Mahendra Singh Dhoni had scored 110 on the opening day as India recovered from 32 for four to close on 385 for six.

Dravid, Harbhajan Singh (22), Zaheer Khan (12) and Ishant Sharma (0) were the men to fall as the bowlers held sway in the morning, Chanaka Welagedara getting the key wicket of Dravid, bowled, to finish with four for 87 while Muttiah Muralitharan returned three for 97 by dismissing Harbhajan and Sharma, the former bowled, the latter stumped by Prasanna Jayawardene.

Sri Lanka made an assured, speedy start to their reply, Dilshan leading things off with Tharanga Paranavitana. The pair put on 74 inside 17 overs before Paranavitana was well caught by Dhoni off of Sharma for 35 but Dilshan pressed on, reaching his tenth Test century before he was the first of two batsmen to miscue pull shots as a returning Zaheer Khan grabbed a brace of wickets.

Dilshan (112) skewed his almost straight up in the air and Dravid took a simple catch before Kumar Sangakkara (31) got a little more bat on his, but enough only to fly to Sachin Tendulkar at long leg and he made no mistake.

Before then, Dilshan took the attack to India, mixing aggressive drives with some deft touches, striking 12 boundaries in all, including a flourising cut stroke to take him past three figures.

India felt they had a chance of closing on top, but a workmanlike unbroken partnership of 81 between Mahela Jayawardene (36) and Thilan Samaraweera (45) denied them any further breakthroughs in the final session and leave Sri Lanka 151 runs behind with seven first-innings wickets in hand.

Sri Lanka have never won a Test in India.