If the first day of the second Test match at the SSC in Colombo belonged to Sri Lanka, the second day did not change much in nature. Resuming on their overnight total of 312/2, the Lankans continued their carnage and got to more than 600 before declaring their innings and allowing the Indians to bat for 19 overs. The Indians escaped unscathed. 
For India to have any chance of making a comeback into the game, they needed some early wickets. Kumar Sangakkara was looking settled on 130, whereas Mahela Jayawardene knew that once he got settled, there would be no looking back on a track like this. 
That is exactly what happened. The pair of Sangakkara and Jayawardene got together and continued with their love affair with the SSC. Sangakkara reached his double-century – his seventh – whereas Jayawardene got to a 100 and then to a 150. Sangakkara was the only wicket to fall in the end, and by then, the Indian morale had already gone down.
Thilan Samaraweera begun batting like their strategy was to take on the bowling with aggression, and at the other end, Jayawardene looked settled enough to get to another double century as well. By the time Jayawardene afforded Harbhajan Singh his first wicket of the series, Sri Lanka had got to 642 runs, lost four wickets and declared the innings as well. Samaraweera remained unbeaten on 76.
Fortunately for the Indians, the opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Murali Vijay – in place of the injured Gautam Gambhir – played cracking strokes in the 19 overs they faced and ended the day at 95/0. Sehwag was the obvious aggressor of the two, and remained unbeaten on 76, whereas Vijay supported him well with a 22.
Sri Lanka had earlier changed their bowling attack totally from the one that had played in the previous game.