Colombo: Sri Lanka lost no more than six wickets in declaring at 600, an innings which stretched to three days, thanks to inclement weather. The Indians, however, lost that many inside two sessions!

Bizarre, but that’s how the proverbial cookie crumbled at the Sinhalese Sports Club on Friday, Day III of the opening Test for the Idea Cup.

At stumps, despite an awesome batting lineup (on paper, certainly), the visitors were faced with the prospect of following-on with a huge deficit and struggling to avoid falling behind in the series.

Not for the first time, they have only themselves to blame. Equally, it can’t be said that it’s never going to happen again.

That trouble lay ahead was evident on the second day itself, when the hosts scored well over 300, with three batters getting hundreds. On Friday, Tillekeratne Dilshan became the fourth centurion.

Of course, there were four centurions in the Indian ranks too, but all were bowlers!

In what’s quite rare, captain Anil Kumble went wicketless. It wasn’t for a lack of effort from him, but the same can’t be written about all the other bowlers.

The passion shown by Muttiah Muralidharan and debutant Ajantha Mendis stood out in contrast. The damage, by the way, was engineered by the seasoned Murali and not so much by Mendis.

“The fact is that we haven’t won a session... It has been a disappointing Test and there’s a lot of hard work to be done... We’ve got to save the match... We’re under pressure and it won’t be easy, but it can be done,” remarked India’s coach Gary Kirsten.

Slamming the batsmen, he added: “The shot selection from four of them was poor... They’ve got to accept responsibility... Hindsight is the perfect science and they’ll look back and say they shouldn’t have played those shots...”

Kirsten also tore into the bowlers. “We didn’t use the conditions well on the (truncated) first day... We didn’t capitalise after two wickets were taken early... The wicket had something in it then.”

Getting back to the batting, or the lack of it, the coach’s reference was to vice-captain Virender Sehwag (out hooking one high and well outside off), Gautam Gambhir (who played early), Sourav Ganguly (out sweeping) and Dinesh Karthik (falling to a totally unnecessary slog-sweep).

While Rahul Dravid — Mendis’ maiden victim, via the much-talked about carrom ball — also erred in judgement, Sachin Tendulkar picked Murali’s doosra, but played on.

For all his experience, Dravid handed Mendis an even bigger psychological boost by conveying to the world just how shocked he was by that delivery.

Both bowler and victim, it seems, will find it difficult to forget that moment in a hurry.

Sehwag and Karthik played the worst shots and at the most inappropriate times.

The start had to be muscular, but Sehwag refuses to play according to the situation. As for Karthik, after a poor show behind the wickets, he had the chance to make amends. Instead, he was as irresponsible as the vice-captain.

It’s worth noting that Karthik’s in the XI only because Mahendra Singh Dhoni has taken a break. If he doesn’t get his act right, Parthiv Patel is snapping at his heels.

With the biggest guns back in the pavilion (there were glum faces when the team returned to the Taj Samudra), it’s left to V.V.S. Laxman to ensure that the deficit is as small as possible.

The task is intimidating, but that didn’t stop Laxman from smiling when asked if he could author something of an epic.

Some are apprehensive that the wicket could really be up-and-down on the last two days, but Sri Lanka’s vice-captain, Kumar Sangakkara, didn’t quite agree.

“Yeah, I missed out on such a good batting wicket... No, I don’t see any dramatic change in the two days that remain,” Sangakkara told The Telegraph.

That may comfort the Indians, who won’t be looking at the weather Gods for relief. “Rain would help, yes, but that’s not part of our strategy to save the Test,” quipped Kirsten.

Actually, the strategy couldn’t be simpler: Bat for two days.