COLOMBO
India were battling for survival in the third Test after Sri Lanka had buried them in an avalancheof runs before declaring their first innings at 610 for six on the third day here today.
As many as four Sri Lankan batsmen scored centuries and Sri Lanka took a commanding 376 run lead over India's firstinnings score of 234.
India had wiped out 28 of those by the end of third's day play with all their wickets intact. Shiv Sunder Das was on 22and Sadgopan Ramesh on four when the stumps were drawn for the day with a herculean task remaining on the next two days.
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It was a frustrating day for the Indians who saw one Sri Lankan batsman after another scoring centuries and could donothing about it. Overnight batsmen Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu went on to score big hundreds and off-spinnerTilan Samaraweera followed suit to become only the third Sri Lankan to score a century on debut.
The Indians managed just one wicket in the entire day when Jayawardene was adjudged leg before wicket to SairajBahutule for 139 before Sri Lanka put an end to their agony by declaring the innings midway through the final session.
Hashan Tillekaratne remained unbeaten on 136 and his undefeated seventh wicket partnership with Samaraweera fetched194 runs. Sri Lanka's declaration came immediately after Samaraweera reached his century with a four to the third manbounday. He remained unbeaten on 103.
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Unlike yesterday, India had no chances today and the bowlers were totally clueless. Runs flowed freely for SriLanka with all the three centurions today dominating a session each. Sri Lanka started the day at their overnight 323 for fiveand both Jayawardene and Tillekaratne scored fluently.
Jayawardene, who was on 95 yesterday, brought up his seventh Test century in style, his first two scoring shots beingboundaries off Venkatesh Prasad and Harbhajan Singh.
Having crossed the milestone, Jayawardene cut loose and hit Prasad through the covers and lofted Harbhajan over mid-onfor another couple of fours.
Indian captain Saurav Ganguly opened the bowling with Prasad, the most effective bowler yesterday, but both wereunimpressive. Zaheer Khan, who replaced Prasad after six overs, has not been fully fit in this Test and once again waswayward.
Tillekaratne, who started tentatively, settled down slowly, helped by some inept bowling by the Indians. The duoscored at a brisk pace and brought Sri Lanka's 400 in the 117th over.
Jayawardene was dismissed just 10 minutes before lunch when he came forward to play a defensive shot againstBahutule. Only the bowler went in appeal when the ball hit the pads but umpire David Orchard of South Africa upheld theappeal and Jayawardene had to walk back. His 139 came off 216 balls and contained 14 fours and a six.
PTI
