Sourav Ganguly will get little solace from Shakespeare's Sonnet XXVII this evening. "Looking on darkness which the blind do see…by day my limbs, by night my mind…for myself, no quiet find." A few days ago, in the picturesque hill station of Kandy, the sky was blue, the grass verdant and Ganguly a hero. The picture in Colombo after two days is altogether more gloomy, the Nightwatch in comparison to the Sunflowers on display at Kandy. Marvan Atapattu's majestic century closed the blinds for India and Mahela Jayawardene's punishing innings later in the afternoon blotted out the tiny skylight.

Atapattu was fairly subdued in the morning, second fiddle to Sanath Jayasuriya and then Kumar Sangakkara. The afternoon and evening sessions were a different story. When Harbhajan Singh tossed it up, he essayed some glorious drives. When he tempted him with some width, the cut shot was played with wristy elegance. The flurry of boundaries wrested control of the match, and the Indian bowlers visibly wilted as Sri Lanka turned up the thermostat.

It was the seventh century for the classiest batsman in the Sri Lanka team and he looked good for plenty more when umpire Orchard suffered another attack of the Trigger Finger Syndrome. The ball was light years away from the bat when he was given out – caught at bat-pad by Shiv Sunder Das – and it was with a rueful smile and shrug of the shoulders that Atapattu trudged back. Not that he needed to worry about the team. Jayawardene's glorious straight-driven six – first ball after tea – was an emphatic declaration of intent and he now stands on the threshold of another hundred against India.

With the exception of Venkatesh Prasad, India's bowling was desperately disappointing. But spare a thought tonight for poor Sairaj Bahutule. Underbowled by a captain who has little confidence in him, he had the mortification of seeing both a stumping and a catch go begging. To make it worse, it was Bahutule's Mumbai stable-mate Sameer Dighe who was going through the butter-fingered horrors behind the stumps.

The defining moment of the day? With Atapattu on 97, Bahutule came around the wicket and aimed for the rough outside leg stump. With footwork that would have impressed Rudolf Nureyev, Atapattu came down the track, made room and a fluent downstroke of the bat sent the ball speeding to the extra-cover fence. That one shot was worth the entrance money alone, and it had the crowd and his colleagues purring on their feet. A sunshine-and-champagne type of day for Sri Lanka as India look on darkness.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India

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