Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene piled on the agony for Indian bowlers as Sri Lanka tightened their grip on the first Test by reaching 708 for five to take a 282-run lead at lunch on the fourth day on Thursday.
Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene piled on the agony for Indian bowlers as Sri Lanka tightened their grip on the first Test by reaching 708 for five to take a 282-run lead at lunch on the fourth day on Thursday.
The two Jayawardenes continued from where they had left on Wednesday with Mahela completing his 9000 runs in international cricket on a morning when the visitors piled up their second-highest total against India.
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The 32-year-old Mahela moved on from his overnight 204 to become the joint highest individual scorer against India in this country and the fourth to compile a 250-plus knock in the latter's backyard.
Mahela's unbeaten on 267, after a marathon stay of nearly 10 hours in which he faced 427 balls and hit 27 fours, a six and a five, equaled the earlier record set by Pakistan's Younus Khan at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore in March, 2005.
Riding on the pair's record unbroken sixth wicket stand worth 333 in 575 balls, the visitors adjourned for lunch with a massive first innings total of 708 for five.
The Lankan total is the second-highest against India after their world record tally of 952 for six declared in Colombo 12 years ago.
The previous best total by any visiting team in India was 652 for 7 declared by England in January, 1985.
The visitors resumed at their overnight first innings total of 591 for five and rode on relentlessly past the previous best total by England at Chennai nearly a quarter of a century ago just past the first hour's play on the penultimate day.
The duo overtook the 250-run partnership between Clive Lloyd and Deryk Murray at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in 1974-75 for the same wicket.
In the morning, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's ploy of taking the third new ball immediately after play started on Thursday did not pay dividends as the two Jayawardenes easily saw off the new ball duo of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.
The duo's massive and morale-destroying partnership reached the 300-mark in 510 balls before Mahela completed his 250 with a single off the totally non-penetrative Harbhajan Singh in 400 balls.
Later he became the ninth batsman in the world to reach 9000 runs.
So pathetic was the Indian bowling effort that the four frontline bowlers conceded over 100 runs with Zaheer Khan's 2 for 109 being the pick amidst the dismal scenario.
Ishant Sharma grabbed two for 135. Spinners Harbhajan and Amit Mishra who hardly made any impression gave away over 370 runs for a lone wicket in combination.
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