Opener Lokesh Rahul struck his second Test century while Rohit Sharma and captain Virat Kohli made half centuries as India reached 319-6 at stumps on the opening day of the second Test Thursday.
Rahul made 108 runs in 190 balls spending more than four hours at the crease. His innings included a six and 13 boundaries.
Rahul and Kohli, who made 78, shared 164 runs for the third wicket after India lost two wickets for 12.
Kohli was caught by Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews at slip off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath. His innings included a six and eight boundaries from 107 balls
Jehan Mubarak, fielding at gully, dropped Rahul on 11 off fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera.
Chameera accounted for Rahul after the batsman had made 97 more runs, caught by wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal.
Rohit was out for 79 in the final over trapped lbw by Mathews. He faced 132 deliveries, hit three sixes and five boundaries.
Seam bowlers Dhammika Prasad and Herath took two wickets each.
Prasad gave Sri Lanka a good start in the morning session when he trapped opener Murali Vijay lbw without scoring with the total on four and had Ajinkya Rahane – promoted in the batting order – caught at slip by Dimuth Karunaratne.
India trail the three-match series 1-0 after a stunning 63-run loss in Galle.
They made three changes in their line-up: in-form batsman Shikar Dhawan is out of the series with an injury and was replaced by Vijay. Seam-bowling all-rounder Stuart Binny replaced off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who struggled in the first Test and fast bowler Umesh Yadav took the place of Varun Aaron.
This Test is the final international match for Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara after a 15-year international career. In 133 Tests, Sangakkara has scored 12,350 runs with 38 centuries.
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