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Sri Lanka ended the first day of the final test against India on a respectable note scoring 366 for the loss of 8 wickets with yet another century from Tillakaratne Dilshan and a swashbuckling 86 (not out) from all rounder Angelo Mathews. Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh kept the home side in the game grabbing wickets at crucial junctures. He ended the day with figures of 4 for 107 in 29 overs ably supported by Pragyan Ojha who took 2 wickets for 97.

Win the toss and bowl first would have seemed to be the likely choice, as Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara finally called correctly at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai this morning to signal the start of the third and final test against India. The gr een tinge of grass on the wicket did not influence Sangakkara's decision making, as he decided to bat first hoping to put up a big first innings score in an attempt to level the series.

A win for India in this game will catapult them to top spot in the ICC test rankings above South Africa and Sri Lanka who are currently placed 1st and 2nd respectively, making the outcome of this game crucial to both sides.

India came into the game with the one change, with Tamil Nadu's right handed opening batsman Murali Vijay coming in for International Cricketer and Test Batsmen of the Year Gautam Gambhir, who is away attending his sister's wedding. Sri Lanka also made the one expected change replacing mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis with the right arm medium pace of Nuwan Kulasekara.

Getting through the first half hour of play without losing a wicket would have been the instructions in the dressing room, and the opening pair of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana were listening. They not only showed their intent to stay at the wicket but scored runs at a very brisk rate, the left handed Paranavitana being the dominant partner scoring 32 of the first fifty runs scored by Sri Lanka. Dilshan known for his free flowing style was not to be left behind and soon caught up with his partner hooking and pulling S Sreesanth for a 6 and 4 off consecutive deliveries. At one stage Sri Lanka were scoring at 5.76 runs per over with Sreesanth's economy rate at 6.4 at the end of his 5 over spell.

The Indian seamers would have foreseen a successful morning, getting to bowl on a fresh pitch with a hint of grass and good bounce carrying through to the wicket keeper. But that was not to be, as Sreesanth was either too short or too full allowing Paranavitana to deal mostly in boundaries as the ball raced to the fence across the practice pitches. He reached his maiden fifty of the series prompting MS Dhoni to bring on spin in the 11th over, a little earlier than he would have liked to.

Harbhajan Singh started well, tossing the ball up and making use of the bounce in the pitch. He struck in his 5th over inducing Paranavitana, on 53, into the drive but only to edge a well flighted delivery into the safe hands of Rahul Dravid at first slip, ending the first wicket partnership of 93 runs. This brought in skipper Kumar Sangakkara prompting Dhoni to employ spinners at both ends. Dilshan reached his half century just before lunch, frequently stepping out to the spinners to upset their rhythm and Sri Lanka went into the break at 117-1 from 27 overs, in an envious position. It was a similar start to the one the Indians had at Kanpur which must have weighed heavily on MS Dhoni's mind, his only consolation being that the spinners were bowling a good line and length and getting some turn already.

Post lunch the ground saw a bigger crowd, as the very knowledgeable cricket loving fans in Mumbai took off from work to catch the game. Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha settled in and stifled the batsmen with some accurate spin bowling. Ojha was rewarded for his hard work when skipper Sangakkara, on 18, tried to glance the ball down the leg side only to get a faint tickle into Dhoni's gloves leaving Sri Lanka at 128/2 after 31 overs. The 'Dilshan Show' continued as he cover drove the Indian bowlers finding the fence regularly, supported by a sedate Mahela Jayawardene, and the pair made sure the run rate hovered around 4 per over. Sreesanth, brought on to give Harbhajan a rest, bowled a better line and length in his second spell. He soon had Jayawardene out for 29, as the batsman latched onto a short pitched delivery only to find it falling safely into Virender Sehwag's hands at deep backward square-leg. At this juncture Sri Lanka were 187-3 after 48 overs. Dhoni immediately brought on Harbhajan to replace Ojha after the fall of Jayawardene's wicket. And he struck with his very first delivery getting the new batsman, the very dangerous Thilan Samaraweera for 1, as he lunged forward only managing to bat pad the ball to Murali Vijay at short leg. Samaraweera, who averages in the 50's, would be disappointed with his forward defensive shot. Sri Lanka went into the tea break at 213/4 with Dilshan unbeaten on 99 and Angelo Mathews on 8.

Resumption of play saw Dilshan bring up his 11th test century and his second in this series. He has had a fabulous year scoring at an average of 71.87 with six tons in 2009.

Skipper Dhoni, desperate for a wicket, introduced seam at one end and spin from the other, rotating his bowlers, to take advantage of the evening sea breeze without immediate success. It was in the 9th over that Harbhajan dismissed Dilshan (109) caught at forward short leg. Replays were to however show that the umpire Nigel Llong had got the decision badly wrong as the bat was nowhere near the ball. Sadly without the benefit of the Umpire Decision Review System in this series, the decision stood and a dejected Dilshan was forced to make his way back to the pavilion. His wicket ended a handy 74 run partnership for the 5th wicket with Mathews.

Sri Lanka raced along to 262/5 with Mathews bringing up his 2nd career test fifty off just 60 deliveries. Wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene joined Mathews in the middle scoring at a run a ball. Ojha eventually provided the breakthrough when he had Jayawardene caught by Harbhajan for 43, just as he was looking good for a big score, leaving Sri Lanka on 329/6. India took the new ball as soon as it was due despite Ojha's wicket on the last ball of the 80th over, and Zaheer Khan justified the decision by picking up his first wicket of the day with the final ball of the 85th over, Nuwan Kulasekara edging one through to the keeper. Sri Lanka however continued to pile on the runs to end the day on 366/8 with Mathews unbeaten on 86.

It was an exciting day of test cricket with two of the three sessions belonging to the Lankans as they strung up four 50 run partnerships. The Indian seamers could not capitalise on the morning conditions and it was left to the spinners to get the breakthroughs, bowling 56 of the 89 overs. They picked up 6 of the 8 wickets that fell today.

India would look to restrict Sri Lanka to under 400 tomorrow and wrap up the innings as quickly as possible. The flip side of that however would be that the opening batsmen (minus Gambhir) would get exposed to the new ball at a time when the pitch is at its freshest.

Sri Lanka on the other hand would like to add to their overnight total as quickly as possible and make use of the seam conditions before unleashing the lethal off spin of Muttiah Muralitharan, playing his last test match abroad. The world's highest wicket taker with 788 scalps to his credit in tests, has bowled with very little success in the series so far taking just 5 wickets in the first 2 games. The pitch at Brabourne Stadium is however likely to be more to his liking and the Indian batsmen might just be in for a torrid time tomorrow. With Sri Lanka also possessing the very talented orthodox left-arm spin of Rangana Herath in their ranks, MS Dhoni might just be the more worried of the two skippers tonight. A truly fascinating day of cricket awaits us tomorrow!

Teams:

Sri Lanka: NT Paranavitana, TM Dilshan, KC Sangakkara, DPMD Jayawardene, TT Samaraweera, AD Mathews, HAPW Jayawardene, KMDN Kulasekara, HMRKB Herath, M Muralitharan, UWMBCA Welegedara.
India: V Sehwag, M Vijay, R Dravid, SR Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, PP Ojha, Z Khan, S Sreesanth.

Mini Scorecard:

Sri Lanka 1st innings 366/8 (89 overs, 4.11rpo)
Dilshan 109 (160)                Harbhajan Singh 4-107
Mathews 86* (119)              Ojha 2-97