It was battle of attrition on day one at the P Sara Oval, with both sides going shoulder to shoulder but not forcefully enough to box either into a corner.
After having started with a guard of honour for Kumar Sangakkara, Thursday served up a manic first session, a serene second and a dramatic third which ended with a wicket off the last ball of the day.
If anything, a fine century from K.L. Rahul (108, 190b, 13x4, 1x6) — his second overseas — and half-centuries from skipper Virat Kohli (78, 107b, 8x4, 1x6) and Rohit Sharma (79, 132b, 5x4, 3x6) grant India the tactical space to hurt Sri Lanka on day two.
But it will be wary as it is this position from which the side has floundered before.
At stumps, the touring side reached 319 for six, with Wriddhiman Saha batting on 19.
India, which elected to bat, made three changes. In came M. Vijay, Stuart Binny and Umesh Yadav in place of Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh and Varun Aaron.
For Sri Lanka, pacer Dushmantha Chameera replaced Nuwan Pradeep.
Vijay, who has stabilised the Indian innings on many an occasion, lasted all of four deliveries; he was trapped in front by Dhammika Prasad.
At the Oval here, the average partnership for the first wicket of a first innings is 13.50, the lowest among any venue in the last ten years.
India’s problems, as evidenced in the recent past, extend beyond mere statistics, though.
The in-form Ajinkya Rahane was promoted to one-drop from No.5, perhaps in an effort to protect the out-of-sorts Rohit Sharma. The intention is a matter of conjuncture, but on the day it seemed a sacrificial move. Rahane departed for 4, uncharacteristically chasing one way outside off stump and edging it to Dimuth Karunaratne at second slip.
It worked well for Rohit, though; he batted almost till stumps, assuredly at first and then with lazy elegance and even majestically on occasion before falling to the final delivery of the day, an off-cutter — for the second time in three innings — from Angelo Mathews.
For the second Test in a row, it was the third-wicket partnership which carried India from parlous to safe. Kohli and Rahul, who got together at 12 for two in the fifth over, scored 28 off the next five in a well-masked counter-attack of sorts. In between that, Jehan Mubarak dropped Rahul — then on 11 — at gully in Chameera’s first over; in hindsight a costly miss. And Chameera, surprisingly, seemed listless from thereon till after tea.
Rahul played with a middle and off-stump guard to negate the early morning swing, and left most deliveries that were outside the line. These were interspersed with shots off his leg which earned him his first hits to the boundary.
Kohli, on the other hand, was busy rotating strike and with fewer hits to the fence outscored the opener in the first period as India went to lunch at 97 for two.
In contrast to the morning weather, the afternoon sun was blinding. The pitch flattened out, the bowlers wilted and with that evaporated Sri Lanka’s hopes of taking control.
Two crisp boundaries on the leg side off Chameera and a gorgeous cover drive off Prasad brought up Rahul’s half-century. A majestic six over long-off was Kohli’s stand-out shot.
A great bit of anticipation by Mathews at first slip ended Kohli’s innings at 78. Standing finer than usual, he moved as the batsman shaped up for the cut and, with a dive, caught the ball on the second attempt. The partnership was worth 164 runs from 39 overs.
Rahul, meanwhile, drove, swept and hooked his way to 98 at tea.
The century was reached one over after the break with a risky double off Tharindu Kaushal.
But an attempted pull off a wide-bouncer from Chameera, who redeemed himself with a pacy spell of 5-0-8-1 in the final session, brought Rahul’s innings to an end for 108 as the top-edge was caught by Dinesh Chandimal.
