Virender Sehwag stood bravely amid the ruins with a swashbuckling unbeaten 201 before Harbhajan Singh scalped four wickets to leave the second cricket Test between India and Sri Lanka evenly poised at the end of the second day today.

The dashing Sehwag again did the bulk of the scoring as the Indians folded up for 329 in their first innings with 'mystery' spinner Ajantha Mendis tormenting them with a six-wicket haul.

The hosts then lost opener Michael Vandort in the very first over but recovered to some extent through a 133-run second wicket partnership between Malinda Warnapura (66) and Kumar Sangakkara (68) even though they still trail India by 114 runs.

But Harbhajan (4/71) then broke the Lankan backbone to leave the hosts 215 for five at close on an absorbing second day's play.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene (46) and Prasana Jayawardene (5) were at the crease at stumps on a day which saw as many as 11 wickets tumble at the Galle International stadium.

Resuming at the overnight score of 214 for four, the Indian innings came to an end just at the stroke of lunch with Sehwag carrying his bat through for his unbeaten 201 which contained 22 boundaries and four sixes.

Sehwag and the stylish VVS Laxman (39), the two overnight batsmen, showed signs of consolidating the innings but Mendis provided the breakthrough for the the hosts by evicting Laxman.

None of the other batsmen could hang around for long as the remaining five wickets fell for the addition of just 51 runs.