Thanks to his 51 runs, the hosts finished day two at 140/3, adrift of the Indian total of 393 by 253 runs.
"I think we are in a solid position. The first hour tomorrow is going to be crucial for us. That session, if we bat without giving a wicket, then we can put pressure back on them. We need to bat positively and we need to take steps to do that right," Silva said after the day's play.
Lanka lost an early wicket to Umesh Yadav, but then Silva had a 74-run partnership for the second wicket with the retiring Kumar Sangakkara.
The opener almost got out to Stuart Binny as well, but survived on account of a no-ball and was able to complete his 9th Test fifty.
"The wicket was quite slow. It was a bit tough. We had to stay there and fight hard. We had a good partnership going on and my wicket was bit too much and at the end a loss for us. At that point I was trying to put pressure on Mishra. He was bowling well. Had I executed that shot I would have achieved my target. But I failed. I need to work on that," said the batsman.
"If we play positive against spinners we will have a chance of putting pressure on them like we did in Galle. It is not threatening yet but it will start to spin. It's dry and slow as well. It won't spin quickly but slowly. You have to be positive. We did that in the last game," Silva signed off.
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