Sri Lanka ended the first day of the third Test match against India on 293/4 after they had won the toss and decided to bat first. This was the third successive toss that Sri Lanka won in this series and batted first, whereas Indian captain MS Dhoni had lost his eighth consecutive toss in Tests.
Sri Lanka went into this game with a desire to protect their 1-0 lead and it couldn’t have petered out better for them with the toss. 
Both teams made a change or two to their bowling department after the hammering from the previous game. India went in with Amit Mishra after Harbhajan Singh was declared unfit yesterday, whereas Sri Lanka called up Lasith Malinga and left-arm swing bowler Chanaka Welegedera, both of whom replaced Dilhara Fernando and Dammika Prasad. There had been talks of playing a third seamer in the side, but India had resisted that temptation. 
Tharanga Paranavitana has been the scourge of the Indian bowling in this series so far and has slammed a couple of big hundreds. However, he departed early when he nicked one off the bowling of Ishant Sharma to give the Indians an early wicket. That was all that the Indians, however, got till the stroke of lunch, when T Dilshan (41) ran himself out to some stupid running. He hit the ball to silly point and took a couple of steps towards the non-striker, when Murali Vjay threw the ball back to the wicket-keeper who ran Dilshan out.
After the lunch break, the Indian bowlers tried their level best to get wickets, but they only managed one in each of the two sessions. Kumar Sangakkara was dropped early by Suresh Raina and he scored 75, whereas Mahela Jayawardene also completed his half century. Both these batsmen were dismissed by Pragyan Ojha, but by then, the Lankans had got to 241/4.
With the pitch having eased out considerably, Sri Lanka were propped by the third half century of the innings, when Thilan Samaraweera joined in the fun with an unbeaten 65. At the other end, and supporting him was Angelo Mathews (26) and the Lankans had got to 293/4 by the time the play was called off.
This meant that if the side can add another 150 runs tomorrow, they will be in a position to dictate terms given that the track has already shown signs of wearing and spin. With Lasith Malinga and the two spinners in the side it does look like India needs early wickets tomorrow or run the risk of being shut out of the game.