India vs SL: Lokesh Rahul hits ton but India 319/6

Opener Lokesh Rahul struck a fluent century as India recovered from early jitters to reach 319 for six in their first innings to leave the second Test against Sri Lanka evenly poised on Thursday.

Opting to bat, the visitors lost opener Murali Vijay (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (4), surprsingly promoted to number three, with only 12 runs on the board before young Rahul (108) and skipper Virat Kohli (78) resur-rected the innings with an attractive 164 run third wicket partnership.

Rohit Sharma also chipped in with a strokeful 79 but was dismissed at the fag end of an engrossing opening day's play which saw both the teams sharing the honours.

This was Rahul's second Test hundred as he faced 190 balls hitting 13 boundaries and a six in the process. Kohli, who looked good for another Test ton scored 78 off 107 balls with eight boundaries and a six.

The Indian captain was unlucky to miss out on his 12th Test hundred after rival skipper Angelo Mathews took a smart diving catch off Rangana Herath's bowling.

Under-fire Rohit, however, justified the immense faith shown in him by the team management as he somewhat redeemed himself with a stylish knock after his twin failures in the 63-run defeat at Galle. At stumps, Wriddhiman Saha was unbeaten on 19 as play was called off immediately after Sharma's dismissal.