Dilshan becomes first Sri Lankan to score century in India since 1997

Perhaps the reason why Sri Lanka has failed on Indian soil time and time again; Tillakaratne Dilshan's 112 runs is the first century from a Lankan batsman since 1997. It is also only the 5th century by a Sri Lankan on Indian soil since 1982.

Sri Lanka's bowlers haven't been that impressive either. Apart from Murali's unimpressive 34 wickets in nine matches, all others have failed to pick up wickets. Things haven't changed much for Sri Lanka's bowlers in this first Test match. However, Chanaka Welegedera's four wickets for 87 runs is now the best bowling performance by a Sri Lankan bowler, on Indian soil, in a Test match. Despite Welegedera's heroics, India managed to notch up 385 runs in day one of a test match. With over 400 scored prior to lunch on day two India still had the advantage.

That was until T.M. Dilshan decided to up the ante. Dhoni and the Indians assumed that Dilshan was just a one trick pony. The plan backfired.

Cricinfo's Sidharth Monga,

It seemed MS Dhoni thought Dilshan played only one game, and gave Zaheer Khan a deep point, a deep fine leg and a deep square leg in the first over. Zaheer started with three back-to-back bouncers, hitting the batsman with one of them. But Dilshan refused to be rattled, twice in the first three overs taking singles hitting marginally to the right of Ishant Sharma at mid-on.

With a Strike Rate of 84.21, Dilshan brought Sri Lanka back into the game. At the end of day two Sri Lanka are 275/3 going at 3.92 runs per over. At the start of their innings Sri Lanka found themselves over 400 runs behind India. They are now just 151 runs behind India's first innings total with seven wickets in hand

With so much time left in this match Sri Lanka needs to pile it on here and ensure that India's second innings begins with Sri Lanka atleast 200 runs ahead of India.