Colombo Test: Sangakkara fails in farewell, Sri Lanka end day 2 at 140/3

ColomboRetiring legend Kumar Sangakkarafailed to get a big knock in his swansong Test appearance butSri Lanka overcame an early jolt to reach 1403 afterdismissing India for 393 in the first innings of the secondTest here todayResuming at the overnight score of 3196 India werebowled out shortly after the lunch break and the hosts treadedcautiously to keep the match on an even keel at the end of thesecond days playOpener Kaushal Silva 51 off 117 balls played a watchfulinnings to ensure that the early loss of fellow opener DimuthKarunaratne did not trigger a toporder collapseHis dismissal towards the fag end of the day howeverput the side slightly on the backfoot given that the home teamis still 253 runs behindSangakkara was given a guard of honour by the Indians ashe walked in to bat when the hosts lost their first wicketwith just one run on the boardHowever it did not quite turn out to be a fairytaleending for the veteran batsman who was dismissed by offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin for 32 after facing 87 deliveriesAfter Sangakkaras departure Lahiru Thirimanne 28batting and Silva added 39 runs for the third wicket beforeIndia took the slight edge by snaring the latterWhen stumps were drawn for the day Thirimanne andskipper Angelo Mathews 19 were holding fort for the LankansUmesh Yadav celebrates Karunaratneswicket Pic AFPEarlier resuming at the overnight score India werebowled three overs after lunch as Rangana Herath took 481Wicketkeeperbatsman Wriddhiman Saha who had scored a 60in the first Test played a 56run knock to take India pastthe 350 figureThe Indians scored at a slow pace in the morning sessionas Saha shepherded the lower order to avoid a belowpar totalin the first innings of this match The visiting side couldpull off a mere 67 runs in this first session of play in 234oversThe Indians were in fact lucky to survive on more thanone occasion Saha on his previous evenings score of 19 wasfortunate not to be bowled off the seventh ball of themorningDhammika Prasad 284 was the unlucky bowler as the ballkissed the offstump but didnt dislodge the bail Six ballslater Lanka did get their first wicket of the morning with RAshwin 2 hitting Angelo Mathews 224 straight to shortextra coverSaha survived another close call in the 91st over Prasadagain the unlucky bowler as his loose shot didnt quite carryenough to the keeperTV replays proved sufficient doubt to rule the batsmannot out who still hadnt added a single run to his overnightscore He finally got going on the 14th ball he faced whileAmit Mishra 24 runs 50 balls three fours joined him at theother endThe latter too was lucky to survive without opening hisaccount off 10 deliveries when in the 94th over umpire BruceOxenford failed to detect a faint edge to the keeper withMathews the one to miss out on a wicket this time With thesemany lives given it was no surprise that the batsmen decidedto settle down and curb their shots and run scoring was veryslow as a resultSaha and Mishra built a sluggish partnership of 46 runsfor the eighth wicket and it helped India cross the 350markin the 101st over of the inningsJust as Mishra looked to open up a bit he was dismissedcaught behind with Dushmantha Chameera 272 getting thebreakthrough in the 106th over Saha then reached his secondTest fifty off 106 balls and with Ishant for company avoidedfurther loss until lunchAfter folding up rather quickly in the postlunchsession the Indians struck early with the ball but Silvathwarted their visiting bowlers attempts to run away with theadvantageAfter tea Silva and Sangakkara looked to continue theirpartnership for the second wicket while cutting down on thehiccups But they were only able to add 10 runs to theirteatime total when R Ashwin 137 dismissed the lefthanderfor the third successive time in this seriesAjinkya Rahane held a dipping catch to his left asSangakkara walked off to a standing ovationSilva then put on 39 runs for the third wicket withThirimanne as India bowled with pacers from one end whileAshwin continued from the otherSurprisingly the offspinner was already into this 12thover while Amit Mishra 19 had only been given one overbefore the tea break Meanwhile the righthanded opener movedalong slowly and scored his ninth Test fifty off 92 balls asthe Lankan 100mark came up in the 36th overHe could do no more though as Mishra came on to bowl anddismissed him soon after the batsman caught at short fine legas he tried to go for a sweepSkipper Mathews then joined in and put on an unbeaten 26runs for the fourth wicket with Thirimanne India rotatedtheir bowlers till the very end but were unable to get abreakthrough even as nine overs were lost in the days play