Classy Mahela Jayawardene leaves India clueless

It's a bowler's worst nightmare: A placid pitch and a master batsman seemingly incapable of playing a false stroke. It was Rahul Dravid on day one, lifting India out of a deep trench, and Mahela Jayawardene followed suit to give his team a vice-like grip on the game.

From the start - and what better match to debut in than the 952-run-riot against India - Jayawardene has been a beautiful batsman to watch, one capable of playing every stroke in the book with real elegance. What he lacked, especially in comparison with someone like Dravid, was the touch of steel, that ability to put the boot in when on top of his game.

Even on Sri Lanka's last tour of India, four years ago, he played some lovely strokes, scoring three half-centuries in a losing cause. Llike most of his compatriots, though, he failed to put up a big score and play the sort of innings that can alter the course of a match or series. "I've only played three Test matches here," he said, after finishing the day unbeaten on 204. "This is my fourth. I had a couple of fifties on the last tour and was very disappointed I couldn't convert those. I was very determined to get one here."

The penny dropped a few months after that tour, at Lord's. Marvan Atapattu's recurring back problem resulted in a changing of the guard and Jayawardene's captaincy baptism was quite an ordeal. Despite a defiant 61, an innings defeat appeared envitable when Sri Lanka went out to bat a second time. But with six batsmen scoring half-centuries, the underdogs defied England for 199 overs to save the game. Jayawardene's contribution was a magnificent 119 that lasted a shade over six hours.

He hasn't looked back since. To describe what's followed as a purple patch would be something of an understatement. In 30 Tests, he's made 3441 runs at 73.21, with 14 centuries and seven fifties. And for someone often maligned as a lion at home and a cub abroad, six of those hundreds have come in foreign climes, each in a different country. Against India, he now averages a ridiculous 80.29 over 13 Tests.

"With the captaincy came a bit more responsibility as well," he said when asked about Lord's and its aftermath. "But after playing for so many years, I've learnt what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to manage and build an innings better. Even before that, I was doing the right things but still making a few too many mistakes. Once you get to that stage, you know how to plan an innings against an attack on different surfaces."

He was imperious today as India's attack rapidly lost any semblance of potency. Few drive the ball better than he does, and that was illustrated in a Zaheer Khan over soon after the new ball was taken. A perfect on-drive was followed by a clip through midwicket and a quite majestic cover-drive. Having forced the most dangerous bowler out of the attack, runs were much easier to come by.

India tried quite a few things, including the unappealing tactic of bowling wide into the leg-stump rough. They were wasting their time. Though the scoring-rate dipped a little in the final session, Sri Lanka still made 316 runs in the day for the loss of two wickets, one of them to a generous umpiring decision.

Jayawardene, like Dravid before him, paced his innings impeccably. He made 50 in the first session, 56 in the second and 62 after tea as Sri Lanka proceeded serenely towards the sort of total that will put real pressure on India's batting line-up. When he wasn't driving the ball through the covers, cutting behind point or dabbing it down to third man, he was in the other Jayawardene's ear, ensuring that a potentially matchwinning partnership [216] with the wicketkeeper wasn't broken.

"I just told him a few things to plan against the different bowlers and I think he batted really well," he said later. "Prasanna has the ability. Applying that has been the problem."

They will resume 165 in front, and hope that this granite strip of a pitch shows some signs of wear on the final two days. After play ended, Muttiah Muralitharan was out on the square, bowling at a single stump. More than a quarter-century after Bandula Warnapura's largely unknown side nearly embarrassed the Indians at Chepauk, they have the whiff of victory in their nostrils again. And if his teammates are anything like as focussed as Jayawardene was, they won't let the opportunity slip through the fingers.