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On a pitch and in a series where the fast bowlers have only been making up the numbers, a hostile and quick Ishant Sharma helped India seal an incredible comeback after they had slumped to their third-worst defeat ever in the first Test.

In the first session of the day, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis had made sure India didn't take their lead into the realms of the impregnable, but with Ishant bowling the way he did, the target of 307 stayed secure. Ishant got good support from Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh; the latter finished with his fifth ten-wicket haul.

Sri Lanka were attacked from a quarter they would have least expected hostilities from, and after having done well playing catch-up throughout the match, they finally fell short. The match was much closer than the 170-run margin indicated.

Ishant was accurate, he hit the bat hard, gave Dinesh Karthik some more difficulties behind the wicket, and most importantly, kept producing his special delivery repeatedly: the one that holds its line after having pitched on a length.

Ishant began with a wicket with the third ball he bowled, sending down a perfect right-armer's ball to a left-hander, pitching it around leg and moving it away, making Malinda Warnapura play and edge. Zaheer, in the next over, produced a legcutter for Sangakkara similar to the one he did in the first Test, with similar results. And in his next over, Ishant got the biggest wicket of them all for India - Mahela Jayawardene, who looked to counterattack and cut straight to gully, where Rahul Dravid held on to a sharp chance. Dravid was exuberant at having taken the catch - he had dropped Michael Vandort in the first over, and had also been pushed out of the cordon.

Ishant and Zaheer then tightened the screws. Ishant, in particular, seemed to be bowling on a different pitch from the one that had been on display on the four previous days. At one point, the preceding 12.3 overs had cost India 11 runs and featured two huge lbw shouts, one catch off a no-ball, and most importantly, robust fast bowling. Harbhajan took advantage of that period, and trapped Vandort with an arm-ball in his first over.

But there was one final twist left in the match, and Ishant it was who pulled India out of a threatening situation. Thilan Samaraweera and Tillakaratne Dilshan had put together a swift 76-run stand, pulling Sri Lanka out of the shell they had played themselves into. Dilshan, in particular, hustled the bowling, briefly changing the texture of the game.

Ishant came up with a special over after tea, bowling at high pace, extracting extra bounce, and getting the ball to hold its line. After having beaten Dilshan twice, he finally got him to edge one, and it was all downhill for Sri Lanka after that.

Harbhajan took control of the situation then; both lower orders have, on this pitch, been hard pressed against quality spin bowling. Samaraweera, who scored a resolute half-century, could not do much about what happened at the other end. The last five wickets fell for 23 runs, Harbhajan taking three of them. When he got Mendis, he completed his ten-for, and a successful redemption after his recent misadventures.