Sri Lanka in command at lunch, Sangakkara hits double century

Colombo: Skipper Kumar Sangakkara struck his career's seventh double century as Sri Lanka continued to toy with a listless Indian bowling attack to amass 457 for two at lunch on the second day of the second cricket Test here today. While the Sri Lankan captain was batting at 214, Mahela Jayawardene was on a well-compiled 71 that included 10 boundaries.

Sangakkara's seventh double century came in 301 balls with 27 hits to the boundary. The fact that 400 runs for Sri Lanka came in a record 435 minutes and 651 balls testified to a placid pitch and some lackluster bowling from the Indians.
It was an ominous start to the proceedings for India as Sangakkara hammered two consecutive boundaries of Abhimanyu Mithun in the first over of the second day. The 50-run partnership with his deputy Mahela Jayawardene came off 117 balls.
Making their intentions clear to pile up as much as possible to make India bat again and prise out a result, the Sri Lankan batsmen continued their onslaught against the insipid Indian bowling. The technically flawless Jayawardene played a delectable leg glance off Ishant Sharma down to fine-leg boundary.

He followed it by chipping the lanky bowler in the same over to the mid on boundary. The 100 runs partnership for the third wicket between the two came off 188 balls.
This was the 12th 100-run partnership between Sangakkara and Jayawardene in Test cricket. Meanwhile, the switchover to spinners by Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni hardly made any impact as Jayawardene took Pragyan Ojha head on and hammered him for a boundary and followed it up by taking three runs.
The newly-appointed vice-captain reached his 50 in 100 balls and struck seven boundaries in the course of it. He then followed it up by executing two boundaries off Pragyan Ojha.
Sangakkara, on his part, smashed four boundaries in an over by Ojha as Dhoni looked caught between devil and the deep sea not finding any bowlers to contain the belligerent Sri Lankans. The 150 runs partnership between the two came in 173 minutes off 239 balls.