For more than four hours on Sunday, the Galle International Stadium outfield was bathed in a protective sheath of blue and green covers as the rain beat down with ruthless relentlessness. When play eventually resumed at 2.35 pm on Day Two of the first Test, however, India moved the game forward with enterprise, finishing a truncated afternoon on a healthy 460-9, a position from where they can expect to call the shots over the next couple of days.

Bathed under covers for extended periods, the surface offered the bowlers a lot more on the second afternoon, but with Devdutt Padikkal standing firm and Dhruv Jurel producing a polished half-century, India had an answer to nearly every question Sri Lankan tweakers Prabath Jayasuriya and Keshara Nuwantha, the debutant off-spinner, asked.