Jurel made 115 not out. India declared on 503 for 9. Sri Lanka closed on 8 for 2.
Pant came back for 63. Bad light ended Day 2. Sri Lanka trail by 495. Day 3 starts this morning.
Dhruv Jurel made an unbeaten 115, India declared on 503 for 9, and Sri Lanka closed Day 2 in Colombo on 8 for 2.
The second Test is at the Sinhalese Sports Club, 23 to 27 August. India had overnighted on 300 for 5 after Padikkal's 117. ESPNcricinfo's Day 2 report had Jurel 115 off 177 balls. Rain cut the day. Bad light ended it.
Saransh Jain, the debutant, lasted only into the morning. Asitha Fernando had him fending a bumper to second slip, Asitha's fourth wicket, 4 for 106 in the innings. Rishabh Pant then came back after retiring hurt on Day 1. He made 63 off 89 in a stand of 112 with Jurel, including a hook onto the SSC roof, off a short ball not far from the one that had hit him. He holed out to long-off first ball after lunch.
Jurel was calmer. A 39-run stand with Manav Suthar kept the board moving after Pant. Jurel waited 21 balls on 99, then stole a single to mid-off that a direct hit would have ended. India pushed past 500 and declared.
Sri Lanka had less than an hour, then drizzle, then three overs. Prasidh Krishna had Lahiru Udara caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal, diving at gully. Nightwatchman Prabath Jayasuriya was lbw to Suthar, umpire's call on review. Kamil Mishara, on debut, watched both from the non-striker's end. Sri Lanka trail by 495.
India won the first Test in Galle by 165 runs. A win here is still 12 World Test Championship points.
Padikkal's hundred was Day 1. Jurel's was the innings that made 300 for 5 into a declaration.
Five hundred for 9 on a surface that is starting to turn is how you bat a side out of a match, if the light and the forecast let you bowl. Two wickets in three overs, in fading light, with a nightwatchman in, is the start of that argument, not the end of it. Asitha still has four. Colombo is not Galle. The points table still has India fifth on percentage.
Day 3 starts this morning. The first hour is Sri Lanka's openers, or what is left of them, against Prasidh and Suthar. A follow-on is the question if the cloud stays away.