Indians find themselves in similar soup

Kandy, August 23: India once again found themselves struggling against the Sri Lankan pace attack and were 90 for three at lunch on the second day of the second cricket Test here on Thursday.

Replying to 274, after Sri Lanka's last wicket fell early this morning without the addition of any run to their overnight total, the Indians saw their three most important batsmen back in the pavillion with just 68 runs on the board.

With Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Shiv Sunder Das falling cheaply, it was now left to relative greenhorns to make a match out of it.

Sadgopan Ramesh, who started tentatively, was looking good at 32 while Mohammad Kaif was batting on 10 when lunch was taken.

Chaminda Vaas struck two vital blows to India trapping both Das and Dravid leg before wicket. Though Das was unlucky to be adjudged out since he looked to have nicked the ball, Dravid, the only saving grace in India's 10-wicket loss in the first Test at Galle, was caught plumb in front of the wicket.

Das made eight with the first Indian wicket falling at 11 while Dravid could contribute just 15.

Das was his usual compact self and was middling the ball very well when he became the victim of debutant umpire Wijewardene's decision.

Dravid started fluently and played a couple of very good shots on the onside. He hit Vaas for two fours but got out to the first ball he missed. Vaas sent down a straight delivery which Dravid tried to work towards the on-side. He missed and was caught plumb in front.

Ramesh had a nervous start and lagged behind both Das and Dravid in scoring. He had a few close calls outside the off-stump and was lucky to survive.

However, as the day progressed he gained in confidence and played some fine drives on both sides of the wicket.

Meanwhile, Ganguly, who came at his rightful number four, started timing the ball well right from the beginning and it seemed he was intent on leaving behind his poor run with the bat here. A couple of silky cover-driven boundaries, his trademark shots, did a lot of good to the captain and he scored at over run-a-ball in his short innings.

But his impressive knock was cut short when he was caught by Hashan Tillekaratne at gully off Ruchira Perera after making 18 off 18 balls.