Like on the first day, Sri Lanka won the first session by a fair distance, getting Rahul Dravid for no addition to his overnight 177, taking four wickets for 41, and then batting out a testing 35 minutes before lunch circumspectly but without loss.

Chanaka Welegedara got the big wicket of Dravid early, and while the Indian tail threatened to run amok for a brief while, smart tactics and bowling from Sri Lanka will please them for having taken the last four wickets for 41 runs. India did close to the best comeback from a similar score: in 1998-99 West Indies went from 34 for 4 to score 431 for 1 against Australia in Jamaica.

The way Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan started against the pace of Welegedara and Dammika Prasad, driving, cutting, and upper-cutting with ease, it seemed they would get much more. Despite Dravid’s played-on dismissal – fifth man out of seven to get out either lbw or bowled – the runs started coming at the same pace as yesterday.

Harbhajan hit both the pace bowlers for boundaries through covers before Zaheer upper-cut back-to-back deliveries from Prasad for fours. Twenty-one runs came in the first six overs, despite a maiden bowled to Dravid, and Kumar Sangakkara immediately went in for an in-and-out field, drying out easy boundaries, making the tailenders play normal cricketing shots.

Introduction of spin at both ends further stifled them, as even good shots would get them just ones. An arm ball from Rangana Herath, more a finger ball actually, breaking in sharply after pitching, got Zaheer although it did seem too close to missing the leg stump to be given. That capped off a quiet spell of 5.2 overs for eight runs, the quietest of the match.

Harbhajan looked stifled and started getting adventurous, his second attempt at a reverse-sweep off Muttiah Muralitharan making him the seventh man to get either bowled or lbw. Harbhajan scored 22, Zaheer 12. In the same over, Murali beat Ishant Sharma with a doosra and Prasanna Jayawardene ended the innings with a quick stumping.

Indian new-ball bowlers didn’t get the kind of swing that Welegedara got, but they came out with a plan. Tillakaratne Dilshan’s favourite scoring options were blocked, and Zaheer welcomed him with three consecutive bouncers first up, with deep point, deep fine leg and deep backward square leg all in place. Dilshan showed he had other aspects to his game too, cutting out aggressive shots and taking singles after hitting straight to Ishant Sharma at mid-on. Dilshan’s partner, Tharanga Paranavitana, had a more uncertain start, slashing outside off when not given scoring opportunities.

Two of those slashes carried over the infield, and then when Harbhajan was introduced just before lunch, he square-cut confidently. Dilshan stepped out to Harbhajan immediately, looking to unsettle him. In the last over before lunch, Dilshan opened up, crashing Zaheer for two boundaries through cover, emphasising as to who was in control on the second morning.

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New Zealand came into this series as the No.4 team in the world. They had won three of their last four one-day series. They were apparently confident after winning the Twenty20s. Two walloping defeats later they look visibly shell-shocked. New Zealand have been surprised, it seems, by the ferocity of cricket played by Sri Lanka and India in two games. They crashed out of the series today due to the uncertainty and instability in their style of play.

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