Dhananjaya de Silva's fighting ton gives Sri Lanka a draw

Dhananjaya's strong backfoot game against the spinners threw India off guard and left them in need of a Plan B to dislodge an important partnership between the centurion and his skipper. The skipper was dismissed eventually and an injury consumed the centurion, but debutant Roshen Silva, who lived up to the glorious testimonial that his impressive domestic numbers afforded him, and the ever-entertaining Niroshan Dickwella earned small consolation for the visitors, keeping India down to a 1-0 series win.

For the first time in five days, there were clear skies and a sustained period of sunshine under which Dhananjaya repaid the faith put in him to take up the key No.3 spot. There was smart use of feet against the spinners and a tendency to not hang back when the ball was there to hit to the fence. There were occasional displays of audacity - particularly against Ravichandran Ashwin - as he slog-swept him for a six and executed a cheeky scoop for a four after shuffling across. Dinesh Chandimal carried on his fluent display from the first innings, only troubled once by a ripper from Ravindra Jadeja that squared him up and knocked back his middle-stump, only for the TV umpire to nullify the dismissal on the account of Jadeja's foot fault.

The reprieve for Chandimal came as a relief for Sri Lanka who had already been robbed off by umpire Joel Wilson's oversight earlier in the day, when Jadeja seemed to have clearly overstepped on the ball that prised away first-innings centurion Angelo Mathews. The no-ball aside, Jadeja had done exceptionally well to set the senior batsman up following a disciplined start to his day. Each of the previous four balls to Mathews were bowled from closer to the stumps, with three of them straightening and one going with the around-the-wicket angle.

Jadeja saw Mathews's tendency to bring a big stride forward and decided to push his length slightly to the left of off-stump and bowled from wide off the crease. The subtle changes also came at Mathews at a slower speed, and sucked the batsmen into his stride, and took the outside edge on its way to Ajinkya Rahane at first slip.

For the rest of the morning session, Dhananjaya and Chandimal did enough to defy the Indian bowlers - albeit on a benign surface - to keep Sri Lanka's hopes of salvaging a draw alive. The pair took their partnership past 100 in the post-Lunch session, but in the eighth over of the session Ashwin broke through with some brilliance. On a pitch where balls weren't turning too much, Ashwin gave air to one, got it to dip and turn to flummox the Sri Lankan captain. Chandimal had made his way out of the crease but was never going to reach the pitch of the ball, and yet went through with his attempt to play through mid-wicket. For once the ball turned appreciably, and went through the big bat-pad gap to hit the stumps. Shortly after Chandimal's exit, Dhananjaya reached his third Test century.

At a time when Kohli unleashed both his spinners, Roshen overcame his first-innings duck and stitched a stand with Dhananjaya and looked impressive. Such was the defiance of the sixth-wicket stand and the unresponsiveness of the surface, that Kohli brought on part-timer pair of himself and Murali Vijay for a few overs. But Dhananjaya's long stay in the middle came at a price as he kept clutching his right leg between overs and indulging in stretching exercises between overs. A tightness in his Gluteal muscle forced him off the field. Dhananjaya's 219-ball stay for 119 included 15 fours, six each off the two spinners - Ashwin and Jadeja - whom he faced and saw off the most.

Dhananjaya's forced exit meant Dickwella had to see off the the last few overs of the second session before finding himself in a situation very similar to the Kolkata Test, which Sri Lanka just about managed to save with after a pulsating final session's play.

In Delhi, though, the wicket wasn't as helpful, as Kohli had to revert to spin from both ends after just seven overs of double-barrelled pace attack with the new ball. Jadeja nearly broke through when Dickwella galloped down the track and played towards the onside anticipating turn. The ball didn't and gave Saha a chance to stump the left-hander but the wicketkeeper couldn't collect the ball cleanly.

Like in Kolkata, the crowd tried to make an impact by turning up the noise levels, but they too were discouraged very soon by the the fact that the flat surface was not going to make way for a late heist. Dickwella provided for a few 'oohs' and 'aahs' with his streaky and cheeky strokeplay, but nothing came of it as teams shook hands shortly before end time.

Brief scores: India 536/7d (Virat Kohli 243, Murali Vijay 155; Lakshan Sandakan 4-167) & 246/5d (Shikhar Dhawan 67, Rohit Sharma 50*; Dhananjaya de Silva 1-31, Lahiru Gamage 1-48) drew with Sri Lanka 373 (Dinesh Chandimal 164, Angelo Mathews 111; Ishant Sharma 3-98) & 226/5 (Dhananjaya de Silva 119 retd. hurt, Roshen Silva 38*; Ravindra Jadeja 3-59)