SPORT LD SL 2

After being rocked by the cheap dismissals of openers
Gautam Gambhir (1), Virender Sehwag (16), Sachin Tendulkar
(4), entering his 21st year in international cricket, and
V V S Laxman (0), it needed a determined and ever-so-steady
Dravid to stem the rot and he did it with aplomb.
The fifth wicket stand between Dravid and Yuvraj Singh,
that spanned either side of the luncheon interval and was
worth 125 runs in 129 balls, put the shaky innings on an even
keel after India had opted to bat first on winning the toss.
After the departure of Yuvraj (68), who played a
typically aggressive knock with 13 fours, Dravid forged forces
with Dhoni to first consolidate the innings further and then
take it to a higher plane with a 224-run partnership for the
sixth wicket.
Dravid, in scoring his second hundred at this venue, also
moved past former Australia skipper Steve Waugh to stand fifth
in the all-time list of run-getters in Test cricket. The
Indian middle-order mainstay stood fifth in the queue at the
end of the day after passing the 11,000-run mark just before
stumps when on 177.
The day began in disastrous fashion for India, barring
the winning of the toss by Dhoni, as they were done in by some
good swing bowling chiefly by Welegedara, playing in only his
second Test, and careless batting.
Welegedara led the Lanka assault on the much-vaunted
India batting line-up and dismissed the top three batsmen in a
fiery opening spell to leave the hosts struggling at 31 for
three. More PTI