COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Tharanga Paranavitana and Kumar Sangakkara hit centuries again yesterday as Sri Lanka punished the Indian bowlers in familiar fashion on the opening day of the second test.
Paranavitana made exactly 100 to follow his 111 scored at Galle and Sangakkara was undefeated on 130 to go with his 103 in the first test as Sri Lanka closed on 312-2.
The pair put together a second wicket partnership of 174 as India’s bowlers toiled on a placid pitch.
Paranavitana, who played the passive role in the opening partnership of 99 with Tillakaratne Dilshan, completed his second test hundred off 217 balls before playing on to a delivery from Ishant Sharma.
Sangakkara, displaying more aggression than his partner went to his 23rd test hundred with a boundary off part time bowler Virender Sehwag. At stumps he had hit 15 fours in his 225-ball innings.
Mahela Jayawardene was unbeaten on 13.
India tried six bowlers and their only other success of the day was the wicket of Dilshan in the morning session.
The Sri Lankan openers justified Sangakkara’s decision to bat first by scoring runs briskly off a depleted Indian attack missing Zaheer Khan and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.
Dilshan attacked from the beginning, smashing Ishant Sharma for four consecutive fours in his second over and repeating the treatment on Abhimanyu Mithun.
Dilshan completed his half century off 39 balls with 10 fours but at 54 got over-ambitious and in attempting to drive left-arm spinner Pragjyan Ojha gave a simple catch to VVS Laxman at short extra cover.
Sangakkara joined the cautious Paranavitana and took Sri Lanka to lunch without further loss. Sri Lanka lead the three-match series 1-0.
SCOREBOARD
Sri Lanka first innings
T. Paranavitana b Sharma 100
T. Dilshan c Laxman b Ojha 54
K. Sangakkara not out 130
M. Jayawardene not out 13
Extras: (b-4, lb-6, w-1, nb-4) 15
Total (two wickets; 90 overs) 312
Fall of wickets: 1-99 2-273
To bat: T. Samaraweera, A. Mathews, P. Jayawardene, D. Prasad, S. Randiv, D. Fernando, A. Mendis.
Bowling (to date): Mithun 17-4-75-0, Sharma 15-4-66-1 (2-nb), Ojha 23-5-59-1 (2-nb), Singh 22-3-61-0 (1w), Sehwag 9-0-26-0, Raina 4-0-15-0.
India: M. Vijay, V. Sehwag, R. Dravid, S. Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, S. Raina, M.S. Dhoni, H. Singh, I. Sharma, P. Ojha, A. Mithun
