India must’ve gone into lunch thinking they had a chance. They hadn’t set the session on fire, but had still landed a couple of important blows. Thilan Samaraweera had fallen after making 70, while Angelo Mathews was unlucky to be given out caught at short-leg at the stroke of lunch. Sri Lanka were still 51 behind on the first innings, and they had a foot in the door. Who would’ve thought gentle, soft-spoken Mahela Jayawardene would slam it shut so hard?

The former captain, who only recently handed over the reins to Kumar Sangakkara, put the visitors firmly in control of the first Test in Ahmedabad, his unbeaten 204 taking the team’s total to an imposing 591 for five. At the other end is 30-year-old wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene, batting on 84, and the lead already a healthy 165. The sixth-wicket partnership has so far fetched 216, and Mahela said he was looking forward to adding to that on the fourth day.

Underrated?

Mahela Jayawardene is arguably one of the more underrated batsmen in international cricket today. He doesn’t feature in conversations about the game’s greats too often, but the numbers suggest he deserves more than just a passing mention.

He’s only 32 and is closing in on 9000 runs, not too shabby for someone playing his 108th Test. During the course of this innings, he went past Inzamam-ul-Haq, Javed Miandad and Graham Gooch on the run-charts, and lies in 10th place now. His runs have come at a rate of 54.57 per innings; in the Top Ten only Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting have better career averages.

... contd.