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In one swift act of acceleration, and solid consolidation thereafter, Upul Tharanga undid India's much-improved new-ball bowling and ground fielding. Both Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra came out with an effective plan for the Sri Lanka openers, implemented it to near perfection, and were assisted by Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, who didn't let much go through the off-side circle. With just 48 coming off the first 11 overs, and Tillakaratne Dilshan back in the pavilion, Tharanga welcomed Ishant Sharma with five boundaries in his first over, and from there on India no longer controlled the match. With both not-out batsmen having been let off early on in their innings, it was a big matter of concern for India, even though they had taken sent back Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Having witnessed the carnage in this series so far, it was almost surreal to see the bowlers tying down the batsmen so effectively. India got many things right, first of which was to give Nehra the new ball. Both left-arm bowlers kept two men on the leg-side boundary for Dilshan. The third man was left vacant but no room was given to him, neither was he offered anything to drive. Tharanga too had to struggle for room.

Both Nehra and Zaheer generated some movement to go with the tight lines and lengths, and as a result India managed their first maiden of the series - bowled by Nehra - and not one boundary was conceded in the first five overs.

In the first three matches, Sri Lanka reached their 50 in 3.4 overs, 6.3 overs, and 7.2 overs. At those various stages, Sri Lanka had scored 6 for 0, 23 for 0 and 24 for 0 today. It could have been worse for them had Nehra held on to a tough return catch from Tharanga, who was 7 then. The spell of containment was too much to take for Dilshan, who finally pulled Nehra to fine leg, where Kohli took a smart low catch.

The dropped catch apart, Tharanga kept the bowlers at bay. He manufactured a couple of shots, backing away and pulling over mid-on, and made sure Sri Lanka were always one special over away from getting back on even terms. The moment came when Ishant was introduced in the 12th over, with the score on 48 for 1. Ishant provided him driving length, and also width. The first ball was slapped square, the second driven to cover where Raina saved four, the third lofted over point, the fourth and fifth gorgeously threaded through the gap between mid-off and extra cover, and a thick edge off the last ball ran fine of third man. All of a sudden, Tharanga was 45 off 43 balls.


In the next over, though, Zaheer got rid of Jayasuriya, with a near-perfect legcutter taking the edge through to first slip. But India slipped in the field again. Kumar Sangakkara looked to pull Ishant, got a massive leading edge, but Harbhajan Singh at third man was late in picking it and ended dropping him when on 0. To rub it in, Tharanga crashed the next ball through the covers, bringing up his 10th boundary and his fifty in 45 balls.

A period of consolidation followed, and the pair added 38 to the 91 for 2 in 15 overs. Tharanga continued to torment Ishant, though, hitting taking back-to-back boundaries in his fifth over. The dangerous-looking partnership had added 57 in 12.1 overs by the end of the first quarter of the match.