Malinda Warnapura played and missed a bit early on before finding his rhythm.
Malinda Warnapura's brisk unbeaten 50 off 74 balls proved to be the difference between an emphatic session and a merely satisfactory one for India in a rain-hit opening day of the Test series. India's new-ball bowlers had Warnapura sorted out initially, saw his rather unsubtle love for front-foot play, peppered him with bouncers, fooled him with slower ones, got him playing ungainly shots, but by the end of the 22 overs possible he managed to stay undefeated after watching Michael Vandort and Kumar Sangakkara depart early.
Heavy overnight rain, sporadic drizzles during the day and the resultant wet outfield had ruled out any play in the first two sessions. After Mahela Jayawardene won the toss, both teams came out suggesting they could hardly wait inside their dressing rooms. Vandort flicked the first ball off his legs before Gautam Gambhir's interception at short leg averted a certain boundary. In Zaheer Khan's next over, Warnapura planted his front foot down the wicket and drove him straight down the ground for the first boundary of the series.
That was cue enough for Zaheer, who made the bouncer into his stock ball, hitting Warnapura three times on his shoulder in one over, the third of the innings. Ishant Sharma, at the other end, took advantage of the shackles Zaheer had put around the batsmen. Getting one to kick off a short length and move away from the off-stump line, Vandort followed it and only managed an edge to Dinesh Karthik.
Though Warnapura still looked ungainly, what stung India was the pace at which fetched his runs. The misses, the body blows and the edges didn't seem to have any effect on his mindset; the pitch didn't have scary pace in it and he was happy driving on the front foot. Then, just when the two left-handed batsmen seemed to be settling into a partnership, Sangakkara got a vicious legcutter from Zaheer, just after the drinks break. Angling in towards the stumps, Sangakkara had to play at it, but after pitching it straightened to take the edge low to Rahul Dravid at first slip.
In the following nine overs, Jayawardene and Warnapura batted with contrasting styles. Warnapura, although more assured than before, still looked to press forward, and to his credit, whenever forced into an uncomfortable territory, he got the bottom hand off the bat so that nothing flew off it. Jayawardene, unperturbed by the fading light, was more fluent than Warnapura, playing majestic cover-drives off a tired Zaheer and an innocuous Sourav Ganguly.
The players walked off at the first offer of light, 20 short of the scheduled 42 overs. India missed a third specialist seamer in overcast conditions, but the true test will come when the sun is out and also when they are bowling the second time round.
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