The first day of the second Test match between India and Sri Lanka at SSC ended in almost the similar fashion as the one at Galle earlier. Sri Lanka won the toss, piled on the agony and left India with no option but to now play second fiddle through the rest of the match. 
India’s only chance in this game to make some sort of a comeback was going to be had they won the toss, and elected to bat first. This would have been helped by the fact that the Lankans were going into the game without two of their best bowlers, Lasith Malinga and Muthiah Muralitharan. However, once the toss was lost, the Indian morale looked to have skydived and the bowling just fell away in a heap.
Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun failed to get a move on with the ball in their hands. Ishant looked jaded as he has begun to look, and though Mithun got the ball to swing around, there was no pace to exploit that. 99 runs were added by the first wicket partnership of Tharanga Paranavitana and Tillakaratne Dilshan and that came off only 18 overs – an ODI pace of batting. Dilshan got to his half-century, but was in a hurry to get more and finally succumbed to the pressure – caught by VVS Laxman off Pragyan Ojha.
However, that did not stop the bleeding. Kumar Sangakkara came into bat at the number three position and immediately signalled his intentions. There was positive intent and aggression written all over his batting, as he took Lanka to the lunch without losing his wicket. At the other end, Paranavitana continued to bat from where he had left off in the previous game and got to his 50 and then to his hundred.
Both the players got to their centuries in the same over of Virender Sehwag, and while Paranavtana was later consumed by Ishant, Sangakkara batted on – eyeing a big one. Paranavitana scored 100 before inside-edging the ball to the stumps, whereas Sangakkara remained unbeaten on 130. Mahela Jayawardene gave him company at the other end, and was on 13.
At the end of the day, Sri Lanka were 312/2 in the 90 overs, and the total of more than 600 runs looms large. Unless, of course, the side comes up with a miracle!