Anil Kumble provided the pressure and Harbhajan Singh the breakthroughs as India pulled Sri Lanka back in the middle session after Kumar Sangakkara and Chaminda Vaas had threatened to run away with the game. Sangakkara, though slow in the middle session, stuck around, making sure Sri Lanka didn't completely squander the advantage. If India didn't have a slight upper hand by tea, it was down to the inconsistent umpiring when it came to reviews.
India had taken two wickets, Vaas and Mahela Jayawardene, for four runs, and should have made it three for 16 when Kumble's appeal for an lbw against Thilan Samaraweera was rejected. In live time, it seemed there might have been an inside edge before the ball hit the pad, but the replays were clear enough in showing the ball hit the pad first. The impact was 40% inside the mat - just like with Rahul Dravid when he was given out yesterday - and the ball would have gone on to hit the middle stump three-fourths of the way up. For some reason, though, the original decision was upheld, which left the Indians irate. Sachin Tendulkar - who had injured his elbow earlier - even signalled "out" from the dressing room.
The drama around the review notwithstanding, India's strategy of drying up the runs worked. In the first session Vaas, the night-watchman, had taken ownership of the house. To the penultimate ball yesterday, Vaas had refused a single, to ensure he did his job of shielding the specialist batsman. But on the second morning it was clear who looked the better batsman of the two. Michael Vandort played and missed, got drawn into shots, and finally fell lbw to one that came in from Zaheer Khan. Vaas at the other end never committed, didn't play anything he didn't need to, and irked the bowlers with his peculiar style of letting the ball go.
He repeatedly hid the bat behind pad, and made a pretence of playing at the ball - way inside the line. The bowlers would glare, getting it closer to him with every delivery, and then, when the ball got close enough, Vaas would either cover-drive or square-drive.
Sangakkara, who made a dicey start with an uppish boundary past a diving Rohit Sharma at point, looked to make amends for his ordinary series. Twice in the previous Tests, Zaheer had caught him in the crease, making him play at legcutters. This time, though, Sangakkara consciously kept getting on to the front foot, especially against Zaheer. Once he saw Zaheer off, there were no signs of struggle, and he was severe on anything loose.
A big chance arrived for India when Sangakkara, 34 then, edged a faster one from Kumble, but Rahul Dravid failed to latch on to what would have been a spectacular slip catch. To rub salt in, Sangakkara came up with an exquisite cover-drive off Harbhajan in the next over.
After lunch India came out determined to make runs hard to get. In the first session, Sri Lanka had managed 100, while in the first 11 overs of the second they managed only 23. Harbhajan kept bowling outside off, while Kumble - from round the stumps - got purchase from the pitch. Vaas was strangled: he survived two close calls in one Kumble over, and in Harbhajan's next, lobbed an easy catch to extra cover, falling two short of achieving the double of 3000 runs and 300 wickets. Harbhajan then beat Jayawardene with an offbreak, and for once Jayawardene got the review call wrong. He was originally given out lbw and that's how it stayed.
Only 61 runs were scored in the second session, but Sangakkara looked solid by tea, and even if he scored only 27 in the middle session, both teams knew Sri Lanka could get a sizeable first-innings lead as long as he was there.
India had taken two wickets, Vaas and Mahela Jayawardene, for four runs, and should have made it three for 16 when Kumble's appeal for an lbw against Thilan Samaraweera was rejected. In live time, it seemed there might have been an inside edge before the ball hit the pad, but the replays were clear enough in showing the ball hit the pad first. The impact was 40% inside the mat - just like with Rahul Dravid when he was given out yesterday - and the ball would have gone on to hit the middle stump three-fourths of the way up. For some reason, though, the original decision was upheld, which left the Indians irate. Sachin Tendulkar - who had injured his elbow earlier - even signalled "out" from the dressing room.
The drama around the review notwithstanding, India's strategy of drying up the runs worked. In the first session Vaas, the night-watchman, had taken ownership of the house. To the penultimate ball yesterday, Vaas had refused a single, to ensure he did his job of shielding the specialist batsman. But on the second morning it was clear who looked the better batsman of the two. Michael Vandort played and missed, got drawn into shots, and finally fell lbw to one that came in from Zaheer Khan. Vaas at the other end never committed, didn't play anything he didn't need to, and irked the bowlers with his peculiar style of letting the ball go.
He repeatedly hid the bat behind pad, and made a pretence of playing at the ball - way inside the line. The bowlers would glare, getting it closer to him with every delivery, and then, when the ball got close enough, Vaas would either cover-drive or square-drive.
Sangakkara, who made a dicey start with an uppish boundary past a diving Rohit Sharma at point, looked to make amends for his ordinary series. Twice in the previous Tests, Zaheer had caught him in the crease, making him play at legcutters. This time, though, Sangakkara consciously kept getting on to the front foot, especially against Zaheer. Once he saw Zaheer off, there were no signs of struggle, and he was severe on anything loose.
A big chance arrived for India when Sangakkara, 34 then, edged a faster one from Kumble, but Rahul Dravid failed to latch on to what would have been a spectacular slip catch. To rub salt in, Sangakkara came up with an exquisite cover-drive off Harbhajan in the next over.
After lunch India came out determined to make runs hard to get. In the first session, Sri Lanka had managed 100, while in the first 11 overs of the second they managed only 23. Harbhajan kept bowling outside off, while Kumble - from round the stumps - got purchase from the pitch. Vaas was strangled: he survived two close calls in one Kumble over, and in Harbhajan's next, lobbed an easy catch to extra cover, falling two short of achieving the double of 3000 runs and 300 wickets. Harbhajan then beat Jayawardene with an offbreak, and for once Jayawardene got the review call wrong. He was originally given out lbw and that's how it stayed.
Only 61 runs were scored in the second session, but Sangakkara looked solid by tea, and even if he scored only 27 in the middle session, both teams knew Sri Lanka could get a sizeable first-innings lead as long as he was there.
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