COLOMBO, Aug 4: Sanat Jaysuriya (175) and Roshan Mahanama (115) bulldozed their way as the wails of the bowlers failed to awaken the sleeping beauty of the Premadasa Stadium wicket. The two Sri Lankans became the fourth and fifth centurions of the opening Test in which the monstrosity of bat over ball has been a poor advert for the survival of Test cricket as a spectator sport. Not a single wicket was lost on the third day as the Test meandered inexorably towards an inevitable stalemate.

It was the kind of wicket that Geoff Boycott would have loved to pitch a tent on and batted happily ever after. It was the sort of track that Boycott and Sunil Gavaskar would have played a timeless Test of their own.

The endemic weakness of the Indian bowling was magnified under these conditions as the inevitability of the situation was reflected in the body language of most of the Indian players.

The Indian team lacked a bowler of the calibre of Javagal Srinath who has the extra yard of pace to hurry the batsmen on to the backfoot -- there is always some hope of finding the edge with sheer pace. The attack also lacked a spinner who can trick the batsmen in the air than rely on the surface for assistance. That was the only way the spinners had a chance against batsmen who had the luxury to change their minds about the choice of strokeplay due to the ultra-slow nature of the wicket.

The pace of the wicket was best highlighted which Jayasuriya pulled a ball from outside the off stump to the midwicket fence for four -- a stroke which antiquated the Sri Lankan best ever for any wicket -- the 240 unconquered runs that Asanka Gurusinha and Arjuna Ranatunga added against Pakistan in 1985-86 in Colombo. The Jayasuriya-Mahanama association has realised 283 runs so far.

Sri Lanka scored 96 in the pre-lunch session, 101 in second session, and 85 in the period between tea and close of play as the Indian toiled in vain.Jayasuriya, expectedly, was the more fluent of the second wicket partners. For a man who was converted into an opener three years ago, Jayasuriya showed an impressive level of adaptability skills. But was even more laudable was the patience and control he exhibited for well over a day when his greatest strength is his amazing aggression one of the major contributory factors in Lanka emerging a nuclear force in the abbreviated version of cricket. He was almost unrecognisable from the batsman one has known him to be. A player who once scored 137 in 48 balls in a One-Day International batted for closer to seven hours for an unbeaten 175.

Jayasuriya was an embodiment of correctness and concentration. There was only one brief phase of aggressiveness when he back cut, swept and drove through the covers to take three successive boundaries of Nilesh Kulkarni and move to 99.

Jayasuriya's third Test hundred far outstripped his previous best 113. Only three Sri Lankans have bettered Jayasuriya's effort -- Aravinda (267), Brendon Kuruppu (201 not out) and Sidath Wettimuny (190).

Mahanama's tenure was more laboured in comparison to Jayasuriya. He was content in playing the waiting game, exercising great caution in his choice of stroke play.

The pick of his strokes was a shot that can be best described as wristy, half late-cut, half steer, executed without much bending of the back. That stroke off Kumble brought him close to his fourth century, which he finally accomplished with a pulled drive through midwicket of Venkatesh Prasad.

Mahanama suddenly freed himself off his self-imposed shackles. He hooked Prasad for four and then flicked Kulkarni through midwicket for another boundary.

Mahanama should have been out soon after (109 in a total of 314), but wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia could not get his hands to the catch. Rajesh Chauhan was the unfortunate bowler.

The only other time the Indians came close to taking a wicket in the day was when Mahanama padded up to Kumble and found the ball balooning over before falling perilously close the leg stump. The batsman was on 69 at that point of time.

The one-drop batsman also survived two very confident shout for lbw. First when he was on two off Prasad and later when Chauhan curled one a long way to hit him low while he was shuffling on to the backfoot.

Like the Lankans, the Indians adopted to negative tactics to peg down the run-rate. It was an acceptance of the futility of the situation -- partly the handiwork of the curator, and partly due to their own inadequacies.

SCOREBOARD

India (1st innings): 537-8 decl.

Sri Lanka (1st innings): Sanat Jayasuriya batting 175 (418m, 29b, 20x4), Maravan Atapattu c Mongia b Kulkarni 26 (42m, 31b, 5x4), Roshan Mahanama batting 115 (376m, 277b, 14x4). Extras (b1, lb1, nb4): 6. Total (for one wicket, in 100 overs and 418 minutes): 322.

Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Atapattu, 9.1 overs).

Bowling: Prasad 16-1-50-0, Kuruvilla 7-2-24-0, Chauhan 26-3-86-0, Kumble 28-3-83-0, Kulkarni 20-3-57-1, Ganguly 2-0-18-0, Tendulkar 1-0-2-0.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.