Murali stuns India in Colombo

Muttiah Muralitharan shattered India's star-studded top order yesterday with four wickets that put Sri Lanka firmly in command of the first test.

India closed the third day's play at 159-6 in reply to the hosts' 600-6 declared – a scorecard that included four centuries.

The overall test record is five, set by Australia against the West Indies at Kingston in 1955 and Pakistan against Bangladesh at Multan in 2001. India need a further 241 runs to avoid the follow on, with just four low order wickets in hand. Muralitharan (4-38) picked up the wickets of opener Gautam Gambhir (39), Sachin Tendulkar (27), Sourav Ganguly (23) and Dinesh Karthik (9).