With the two centurions from the previous Test in the mood for an encore, and another one padded up in the dressing room, the Sri Lankans seemed all set to flex their batting muscles again. When Harbhajan Singh came in to bowl his 12th over, with the scoreboard reading 191/3, the locals at the Galle Cricket Club stadium might have relaxed in their bucket chairs, prepared to soak in another Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samarweera run feast.

But that Harbhajan over changed a lot, not the least the look of the scoreboard which, at 192 for five, didn’t look so healthy anymore.

The Indians were back in the Test, and the series as well, and finally there was an Indian spinner with a broad smile on his face. The match that had been reduced to a Virender Sehwag vs Ajantha Mendis contest had seen Harbhajan Singh’s late entry into the script. And the relaxing locals were back on the edge of their seats.

For that crucial over, Harbhajan had gone around the wicket and like Murali in the first Test, the ploy paid dividends. First Samarweera was rapped on the pads while a playing a ball pitched on leg and moving towards middle stump. Two balls later, Gautam Gambhir gobbled up a bat-pad offering at short-leg from Tillakaratne Dilshan. No Indian bowler had managed to get in a swift one-two in the series so far and the Sri Lankans, if not on the ropes, were certainly wobbling.

Harbhajan’s figures of 24-4-71-4 meant Sri Lanka were 215/5 at the end of day two, still 114 runs short of India’s first innings score of 329 all out. As the off-spinner later said, India were in control but there were a couple of ‘ifs’ that needed to be taken care of.

... contd.