Dravid, Dhoni put India in command

In a rare exhibition of dazzling strokeplay Rahul Dravid hammered an unbeaten 177 and inspired his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to hit a century and Yuvraj Singh a fifty as India recovered from a nightmarish 32 for four to end the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at 385 for six on MondaySeldom has one seen Dravid in such an aggressive mode He has never scored so many runs in a days play In the process he has crossed the 11000run mark and was involved in two century partnerships 125 with Yuvraj and 224 with Dhoni It was his 78th century partnership a world record All added up to another record the highest score by India in a days playAfter Dhoni decided to bat within the first hour India lost their top four batsmen three of them to fast bowler Chanaka Welegedara 375 in what looked like a rerun of their disastrous batting display when they were shot out for 76 by South Africa in April last year at the Sardar Patel Stadium in the Motera neighbourhood of AhmedabadDravid and Yuvraj decided to take the bull by the horns In an unusual display of counterattack they smacked the bowlers all around the park scattering the fielders breathing down their necksYuvraj hit Dhamika Prasad 290 for two fours in the 10th over to set the tone of the partnership He smashed Muttiah Muralithran 190 for a boundary in the spinners first over while Dravid lifted leftarm spinner Rangana Herath for a huge six straight down the ground Despite wickets tumbling at the other end 100 runs came up in the 24th over and India went into lunch at 105 for four Even after the break Dravid was in full flow and hit Welegedara for three fours in the 29th over to step up the run rateYuvraj hit 13 fours during his 93ball stay at the crease He was foxed by a loopy delivery by Muralitharan and gave an easy catch to Tillekaratne DilshanAfter Yuvrajs departure Dhoni went on match Dravid stroke for strokeu00a0Dravids 251ball stay was studded with 26 fours and a six while Dhoni hit 10 boundaries and a six in his 159ball knock The duo played some crisp shots on both sides of the wickets as 164 runs came off 36 overs in the last sessionDhoni got to his century in style hitting a four off Dhamika Prasad but failed to carry on after edging the fast bowler to wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene in the next overEarlier Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara might have thought that it was a good toss to lose after Welegedara and Prasad gave excellent startsu00a0Welegedara provided the breakthrough as Gautam Gambhir 1 played on dragging an outswinger onto the stumps Welegedara was on fire as he went on to pick up Virender Sehwag 16 and Tendulkar 1 in three deliveries to put India on the backfoot Prasad chipped in crashing through the defence of VVS Laxman and India lost four wickets in 30 deliveries For Dhoni it might have looked like a bad toss to win in the first seesion but at stumps India were clearly dominatingFor complete scores click here