Murali magic has India in trouble

Sri Lanka have taken firm control of the first Test against India after Muttiah Muralitharan took four wickets in his first 15 overs.

Tillakaratne Dilshan had earlier become the fourth Sri Lankan in the innings to reach a century, finishing unbeaten on 125 as the hosts declared at 600-6.

India made a fairly solid start to their reply as they only lost Virender Sehwag (25) in the afternoon session to reach tea at 72-1.

However, things took a turn for the worse in the evening session with debutant Ajantha Mendis grabbing his first Test wicket by bowling Rahul Dravid for 14.

Murali then got in the act with his first as Gautam Gambhir (39) was caught driving at short mid-wicket by Thilan Samaraweera to leave India struggling at 78-3.

Sachin Tendulkar played around a straight one to be clean bowled by Murali for 27, before Sourav Ganguly top-edged a sweep off the same bowler to Nuwan Kulasekara for 23.

Dinesh Karthik (9) was the last man out after offering a simple return catch to Muralitharan before the tourists ended the day at 159-6, still 341 runs behind and looking certain to follow-on.