Colombo, July 29 (PTI): Suresh Raina notched up a century on debut besides putting on a 236-run partnership with veteran Sachin Tendulkar as India avoided the follow on to reach 477 for four in their first innings at lunch on the fourth day of the second Test against Sri Lanka here today.
Raina (112) Tendulkar (152) were holding fort for the visitors at the break in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings mammoth total of 642/4 declared.
Overnight 382 for four, India needed 51 more runs to avoid the follow at the start of play today.
Tendulkar, after a lot of waiting and watching, pushed debutant off spinner Suraj Randiv along the carpet to the cover boundary as he began bridging the still large first innings deficit.
Raina compounded Randiv's anxiety as he swatted the lanky bowler to the long off boundary for the first six of the day.