Atapattu: There is still plenty of cricket left in this match

Marvan Atapattu's seventh Test 100 put Sri Lanka firmly in charge at the end of the second day of the decisive final Test in Colombo and the Sri Lanka vice-captain was delighted to finally get a big score after eight innings without a fifty.

"It was matter of spending some time in the middle," he said. "I have been getting starts and getting out, but I didn't worry about it too much since I have been hitting the middle of the bat during that time. I knew that a big score was due and I just kept going."

This was his seventh Test century, four of which he has converted into double tons: "After passing the hundred I was not thinking of a double hundred or anything. I just kept on batting. My main target was to stay in the middle till the end of the day and I was a bit unfortunate to get out."

He was indeed unfortunate to be given out by umpire David Orchard: "It's part of the game. I always take it that way. There are instances where you are out but the umpire doesn't rule you out."

Speaking of the batting track on which the runs came freely for Sri Lanka,Atapattu said, "Superb batting track. Hopefully things will get a bit difficult by tomorrow and we can put pressure on the Indians. But so far this has been a good batting wicket."

Harbhajan Singh whom everyone thought would create much trouble for the Sri Lankans has not been a real threat so far. "He's a superb bowler. He has his good days and his off-days, so probably this was one of those off-days. But to be fair to him he didn't have the ideal conditions. Also full credit to our batsmen. We played him well."

Atapattu also felt the Indian bowlers didn't put much pressure on the Sri Lankan batsmen, "There wasn't the discipline in their bowling which we saw in Kandy. They gave away too many runs and didn't keep things tight and as a result we have scored about 310 runs today."

Though Sri Lanka are in the driver's seat at the end of the second day, Atapattu believes that: "There is still alot of cricket to be played in this game. If we can get 100 - 150 runs more, we'll be able to put the opposition under pressure."