Sri Lanka vs India, 1st Test, Day 4: Muralitharan foxes batsmen as Lanka close in on victory

The world got to witness the magic of Muralitharan in his last Test as he bamboozled the batsmen to reach a mind-boggling 798 wickets. Thanks largely to his bag of tricks, and lethal spell of fast bowling by Malinga, his side is very close to victory against India in the fourth day of this first Test at Galle. Sri Lanka need five more wickets to win the game, and India on the other hand require a further 63 runs to make Sri Lanka bat again.

Muralitharan: unleashing his sorcery

It all started with Sehwag’s and Laxman’s dismissals that opened the floodgates in the first innings. A short and wide delivery from Welegedera produced an edge that came from the bottom portion of Sehwag’s bat and flew to first day’s centurion Paranavitana in the slips. Laxman was peppered with short deliveries, most of which he dealt positively, but on a fateful delivery he decided to go ahead with a pull shot at the last moment. He had to pay the price for this impulse as he was caught at deep square leg. Yuvraj played with authority for a considerable period before Muralitharan came on to bowl.

He foxed Dhoni who failed to negotiate a classic offbreak which breached his defences and disturbed the stumps. Yuvraj then edged Muralitharan to slips to put India into further trouble. Harbhajan stepped out to Herath to send the ball outside the stadium but missed the ball and was duly stumped; Pragyan Ojha and Abhimanyu Mithun were done away with by Muralitharan for another five-wicket haul – his 67^th in his illustrious career.

Following on with a deficit of 244 runs, India badly needed a good start, but that hope lasted 3 balls into the innings when Gambhir nudged an away-going delivery after two inswingers from Malinga to provide a simple catch to keeper Prasanna Jayawardene. Virender Sehwag threw his wicket away after getting a life when his slash was latched on to by Mahela Jayawardene who took a good catch. Dravid played like a wall and supported Tendulkar on the other end to stabilize the innings and steer India to a level of relative comfort.

After more than 42 overs, the agonisingly slow partnership of 119 runs came to an end with Sangakkara took a catch to dismiss Dravid. His slow, painstaking innings of 44 in 152 balls, having a strike rate of 28, came to an end. But it did not end there.

Sachin Tendulkar could not reach his century when he was claimed by Muralitharan who struck him low on the pads. India did not send in a nightwatchman and that proved to be a big mistake as an in-form Yuvraj got out to Muralitharan in the ball that was the last delivery of the day. India had lost 3 wickets in 20 runs.

Only the weather can now save India from defeat. Muralitharan will look to take two more wickets to reach the 800-mark. What a sign-off it will be for him – a fitting end to the career of a smiling living legend.