Dilshan gives Sri Lanka solid start against India
Associated Press
Opener Tillakaratne Dilshan led a strong Sri Lanka reply with a brisk unbeaten 88 on Tuesday after India was dismissed for 426 on the second day of the first cricket test.
Sri Lanka's was scoring well at 155-1 by tea, losing only opener batsman Tharanga Paranavitana (35) in the middle session.
Dilshan faced 106 deliveries in his stroke-filled innings, hitting eight of his nine boundaries on the offside on an easy paced wicket at Motera.
Paranavitana helped Sri Lanka to a confident start, the tourists reaching 74 before India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni held a low, one-handed catch off paceman Ishant Sharma's delivery which left the left-hander and got a thick outside edge.
Dilshan faced little trouble in negotiating spinners Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra as he punished loose deliveries with some attractive boundaries.
Captain Kumar Sangakkara (23 not out) was giving a good support to Dilshan, the pair adding 81 runs for the second wicket at a good scoring pace.
Earlier, tge Sri Lankan bowlers rallied with four wickets in the morning session after India had resumed at 385 for six.
Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, playing what could be his final test series on foreign soil, took three wickets in the session.
But it was Chanaka Welegedara who made the early breakthrough, as he had on Monday, by removing Rahul Dravid for his overnight score of 177.
Dravid had withstood Welegedara's damaging first spell on the opening day _ when the rookie paceman took three wickets and had the hosts reeling at 32-4 _ and led India's innings revival in important partnerships with Yuvraj Singh (68) and Dhoni (110).
But Welegedara knocked back the stumps in the second over Tuesday when Dravid left a big gap between bat and pad as he attempted to drive down the ground.
Dravid's innings lifted him to fifth in the all-time test scorers after Sachin Tendulkar (12,777), Brian Lara (11,953), Ricky Ponting (11,345) and Allan Border (11,174).
He faced 261 deliveries and hit 26 boundaries and a six in a display of brilliant temperament and strokemaking.
Muralitharan ran through the Indian tailenders as he trapped Zaheer Khan lbw for 12, bowled Harbhajan for 22 and got last man Sharma stumped without scoring.
Welegedera finished with 4-87 while Muralitharan returned 3-97.
