Spinner Ajantha Mendis picked up two wickets Friday to help Sri Lanka restrict India to 190-6 at tea on the opening day of the series-deciding third Test.
After winning the toss and getting a promising platform from its
openers, India's feared batting line-up failed to capitalise, with
debutant fast bowler Dammika Prasad snaring three wickets in the
opening session before Sri Lanka's spin pair of Mendis and Muttiah
Muralitharan pegged back the visitors in the second.
Scorecard | India in Sri Lanka
Prasad (3-75), brought into the side to replace the omitted Nuwan Kulasekara, snared the prized wickets of Virender Sehwag (21), Rahul Dravid (10) and Sachin Tendulkar (6) after India's opening pair Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag shared 51 runs for the first wicket.
Gambhir and Sourav Ganguly began rebuilding the innings after lunch with a 49-run stand but ace spinner Muralitharan did not allow the partnership to prosper.
He induced an edge off a defensive Ganguly (35) which was snapped up by captain Mahela Jayawardene at first slip.
Gambhir made a defiant 72, his sixth Test half-century, before becoming Mendis' (2-33) first victim of the innings when trapped lbw. He faced 128 balls for his runs and hit 10 boundaries.
The left-hander was initially ruled not out by umpire Mark Benson but television umpire Billy Doctrove overturned that decision when Jayawardene appealed against the verdict under a new challenge system trialed in this series.
A brief resistance of 35 runs between V.V.S Laxman and Parthiv Patel – brought in as wicketkeeper for this Test – ended on tea when Sri Lanka's wicketkeper Prasanna Jayawardene brilliantly stumped Laxman off Mendis.