To suggest that not too much should be read into a superb bowling display on Friday against a formidable Sri Lanka Board XI batting line-up on day one of the three-day warm-up game will be not doing justice to a committed effort by pacers and spinner alike on an NCC strip that, characteristically, offered early life.

Most heartening from an Indian perspective was the rhythm Zaheer Khan struck in his first serious outing in exactly two months. The left-arm paceman, now fully recovered from a troublesome and recurring heel injury, went flat out in an opening burst of 7-2-11-2, hustling the batsmen with pace, bounce and movement.

That he showed few signs of discomfort during 12 overs spread over two spells will have gladdened skipper Anil Kumble as much as the fact that the bowling unit responded in stirring fashion to shoot the hosts out for 224 on a perfectly good batting strip. Gambhir's distant waft, snaffled athletically high to his left at gully by rival skipper Jehan Mubarak, was the last slice of action on a stop-start day as India finished at four for one when bad light brought a premature closure. Play will begin a half hour early on Saturday to make up for lost time.

It was almost as if Zaheer was keen as mustard to make up for lost time after Mubarak opted to bat first. The left-armer hasn't played for the country since the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, and while the emergence of Ishant Sharma -- himself no less impressive on Friday -- has helped, Zaheer's immense experience and unquestioned skills are attributes Kumble will be thrilled to summon.

Board XI openers Upul Tharanga and Mahela Udawatte were put through a searching examination, the former in particular extremely scratchy, even if he was somewhat unfortunate to be ruled leg before by umpire Kumara Dharmasena with the ball appearing headed above the stumps.

After the first of two brief interruptions by rain, Zaheer fired out Chamara Kapugedera; before those twin strikes, Ishant had Udawatte superbly caught by Dinesh Kaarthick diving to his left, and India had delivered the early punches.

Munaf disappoints

Munaf Patel was perhaps the lone bowling disappointment after a promising start, though in his defence, it must be said that by the time he came on, the life had gone out of the pitch and the clouds had briefly disappeared.
The arrival of the sun heralded the best batting phase of the day as Thilina Kandamby, who played four one-dayers for Sri Lanka four years back, and the classy Chamara Silva turned it on.  Kandamby stabilised the innings with a stand of 60 alongside Mubarak, then he and Silva matched each other stroke for dazzling stroke during a fifth-wicket association of 100 (108m, 155b) that transferred the pressure right back on to the Indians.

It took one poor stroke from Kandamby, attempting a pull and merely putting the top-edge up for Kaarthick to snaffle, for the Indians to swarm all over their opponents, this time through spin. 

Harbhajan Singh, playing his first match in more than two and a half months, was tidy even as he experimented with bowling round the stumps to the right-handers, getting the ball to grip and enjoying the bounce.  Kumble was even more dangerous, mixing up his pace superbly and transfixing the tail with his quicker ones once Harbhajan had Silva misreading a 'doosra' and holing out to mid-off.

Enough reasons for India to draw confidence from day one, even if Test cricket is a totally different ball game. If the batsmen can now bring their scoring shoes to the party.

SCORE BOARD

SRI LANKA BOARD XI (I Innings): Upul Tharanga lbw Zaheer 6 (38m, 28b), Mahela Udawatte c Kaarthick b Ishant 7 (22m, 14b, 1x4), Jehan Mubarak lbw Harbhajan 25 (95m, 58b, 4x4), Chamara Kapugedera c Kaarthick b Zaheer 1 (8m, 4b), Thilina Kandambi c Kaarthick b Munaf 84 (179m, 138b, 11x4), Chamara Silva c Kumble b Harbhajan 68 (162m, 108b, 6x4, 2x6), Kaushal Silva lbw Kumble 12 (44m, 45b, 1x4), Dammika Prasad lbw Kumble 0 (2m, 2b), Rangana Herath (run out) 1 (26m, 10b), Seekkuge Prasanna b Kumble 5 (16m, 21b), Sujeewa Silva (not out) 0 (5m, 6b).  Extras (B-6, LB-6, NB-3) 15. Total (all out, 71.5 overs) 224.

Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Udawatte), 2-20 (Tharanga), 3-22 (Kapugedera), 4-82 (Mubarak), 5-182 (Kandamby), 6-212 (K Silva), 7-212 (Prasad), 8-214 (C Silva), 9-223 (Prasanna).

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 12-2-35-2 (nb-2), Ishant Sharma 11-2-36-1, Munaf Patel 12-3-49-1, Sourav Ganguly 6-1-10-0, Harbhajan Singh 17.5-3-52-2, Anil Kumble 13-4-30-3 (nb-1).

INDIANS (I Innings): Gautam Gambhir c Mubarak b Fernando 4 (2m, 4b, 1x4), Virender Sehwag (batting) 0 (2m, 0b), Rahul Dravid (batting) 0 (0m, 0b). Total (for 1 wkt, 0.4 overs) 4. Fall of wicket: 1-4 (Gambhir). Bowling: Fernando 0.4-0-4-1.