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Untitled Document
 India, Lanka share honours on rainy day
23rd Jul 2008 22:05 IST
Agencies
India captured two early wickets before opener Malinda Warnapura lit up a gloomy day by cracking a sparkling unbeaten half century to take Sri Lanka to 85/2 on a rain-truncated opening day of the first cricket Test in Colombo today.
The left handed Warnapura cracked an unbeaten 50 to notch up his third Test half century as the hosts played cautiously on a day which saw the honours being more or less shared by the teams.
Only 22 overs were possible during the day after play started about four hours late due to rain and soggy ground conditions at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground.
Electing to bat, the hosts lost opener Michael Vandort (3) and Kumar Sangakkara (12) cheaply but Warnapura held the innings together with a solid effort.
Captain Mahela Jayawardene (16) was giving Warnapura company when play was called off early because of bad light.
The Indians, seeking to achieve the rare feat of winning a series against the islanders in their own den, fired the first salvo when the lanky Ishant Sharma got rid of Vandort with a rising delivery.
The left-handed Vandort went on the front foot but only managed to edge the outgoing delivery to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps much to the delight of his teammates, reducing the home team to 7/1.
Zaheer Khan then struck for his team by sending back Sangakkara to the pavilion with a gem of a delivery which saw Rahul Dravid taking a smart catch at first slip.
After Vandort's dismissal, Warnapura went on the offensive hammering Ishant for three boundaries in one over. He first whipped the ball to the third man region, then to long off and the third one through the fine leg.
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