Gambir on song as India dominate with bat

The first session witnessed a semblance of battle, at least in the first hour, but the day's play was a one-way street heading India's way. Gautam Gambhir notched up his seventh hundred in nine Tests, as India scored the most number of runs in a single day. He finished emphatically on 167, hitting 15 fours en route, to give India pole position after they chose to bat.

It wasn't just the runs, it was the manner in which they were compiled. The batsman seemed to do as he wished: Gambhir punctuated his charges down the wicket with delicate late cuts.

He went after Herath in his first over, hitting him for three boundaries: He whipped through covers, cut past point and stepped out to loft to the straight boundary. Gambhir had different approaches to the spinners: He stepped out often against Herath, used his crease well against Muralitharan, going either well back or stretching forward, and worked the angles against Ajantha Mendis.

The brisk, confident scoring through most of the day was possible because Gambhir showed patience in the first hour against the new ball and laid a good platform. He was the more assured of the openers against the new ball. He was dismissed playing away from the body against Welegedera in the last Test and took care to play close to his body today. He scored quite a few runs in the third-man region but the slow pitch was always going to throw up that kind of a wagon wheel.