An unbeaten fifth wicket partnership of 236 runs between ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar and debutant Suresh Raina helped India avoid follow-on as they added 95 runs in morning session without losing a wicket.

Raina became 12th Indian batsman to score century on Test debut when he stroked a delivery from Dammika Prasad through covers for a boundary. He also became the only Indian batsman after Virender Sehwag to achieve this feat. Interestingly, Tendulkar was at the other end too during that inning.

Sachin Tendulkar also was at his fluent best as he remained unbeaten on 152 when lunch was called.

With this score, Tendulkar surpassed Don Bradman’s 18 scores of 150+ and equalled Lara as the batsman with most scores of 150+.

Earlier, morning session saw unbeaten pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina make steady progress as both batsman sensibly played the fiery first spell from Dilhara Fernando who dugged in short pitch stuff at both batsman. However, both batsmen faced some anxious moments too during their stay but umpires ruled out all the close calls for lbw.

Aggressive start from Suresh Raina and Sachin Tendulkar on the forth day of the Test saw India past 400 runs in the sixth over of the morning.

India look on to build unbeaten 141-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and debutant Suresh Raina on day 4 to register a comeback in second Test against Sri Lanka. Still trailing by 260 runs in first innings, India’s first target will be to score 60 runs to avoid yet another embarrassing follow-on in the current Test series.

India yesterday posted a fitting reply to Sri Lankan mammoth first innings score of 642 when they finished Day 3 with 382 runs on the board for loss of 4 top-order wickets.

Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar’s brilliant century and Suresh Raina’s maiden half-century helped India exorcise the ghost of another batting collapse as they well negotiated the pace and spin attack of Sri Lanka.

India, who resumed their batting from 95 for no loss lost their first wicket at 165 when spinner Suraj Randiv got Virender Sehwag stumped.