In reply, Sri Lanka was 66-1 at stumps, recovering after losing opener Tillakaratne Dilshan to the first delivery of the innings, spooning a Zaheer Khan delivery to Pragyan Ojha at mid-on.

Opener Tharanga Paranavitana and captain Kumar Sangakkara were both on 30 at the close of play. Paranavitana was the more aggressive of the pair, hitting five boundaries from 64 deliveries, while Sangakkara hit three boundaries in his composed 80-ball knock.

Rahul Dravid earlier became the third batsman in the Indian innings to hit a century as he compiled 144 off 226 balls, posting his 28th century and surpassing Australian batsman Allan Border to become the fourth highest run-maker in test cricket.

Playing in his 136th test, Dravid has now scored 11,182 runs. He passed Border (11,174 runs) in the test cricket's list of top run-scorers which is headed by Indian star Sachin Tendulkar (12,917 runs), West Indies' Brian Lara (11,953 runs) and Australian captain Ricky Ponting (11,345 runs).

Resuming at 417-2, India lost overnight batsmen Sachin Tendulkar (40) and Dravid in the morning session.

They added 96 runs for the third wicket before Tendulkar miscued a shot against spin bowler Ajantha Mendis and was caught by Thilan Samaraweera at deep-midoff.

Dravid struck a six and 15 boundaries before getting run out at the non-striker's end when Herath failed to hold a return catch on a forceful shot from V.V.S. Laxman, but the ball deflected on to the stumps with Dravid outside the crease while backing up.

Yuvraj Singh (67) and Laxman (63) then put on 103 quick runs for the fifth wicket.

Laxman hit five boundaries in his 121-ball knock that ended when he mistimed a lofted shot off Herath and was caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan at mid-off.

India lost its last four wickets for just three runs. Herath pushed a ball through the defense of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (4) and then bowled Harbhajan Singh (5) with the last delivery before tea.

Ajantha Mendis (2-162) had Yuvraj caught by skipper Kumar Mendis before Herath returned to dismiss Zaheer Khan (1) and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (zero) for his fourth career five-wicket haul.