Murali, Mendis rip India apart

Sri Lanka's spin duo share 19 wickets during innings win

Last updated: 27th July 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Murali, Mendis rip India apart

Mendis celebrates the second-innings dismissal of Laxman

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First Test Match
SSC, Colombo
Sri Lanka 600-6 dec (D P M D Jayawardene 136, T T Samaraweera 127, T M Dilshan 125 no, B S M Warnapura 115) v India 223 (V V S Laxman 56, M Muralitharan 5-84, B A W Mendis 4-72) & 138 (M Muralitharan 6-26, B A W Mendis 4-60)
Sri Lanka beat India by an innings and 239 runs

Spin duo Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis bowled Sri Lanka to victory by an innings and 239 runs in the first Test against India.

India crashed to 138 all out after being asked to follow-on - Muralitharan and Mendis shared all 10 wickets in the second innings having also taken nine between them in the first innings.

Off-spinner Muralitharan, the leading wicket-taker in Test history, finished with match figures of 11-110, his 21st 10-wicket haul.

Just as impressive was the performance of Mendis on his Test debut, the 23-year-old - who bowls a mixture of off-breaks, leg-breaks, googlies and top spinners - finished with second-innings figures of 4-60.

His match bag of 8-132 is the best by a Sri Lankan debutant.

India resumed on the fourth morning at 159-6 in their first innings, needing a further 242 to avoid the follow-on.

It never looked likely - Anil Kumble (1) was dismissed lbw by Mendis in the third over of the day, a decision that was confirmed by the third umpire.

Harbhajan Singh (9) was Muralitharan's (5-84) fifth wicket of the innings, edging a delivery onto his pads for Malinda Warnapura to take a simple catch, and Zaheer Khan (5) was soon lbw to become Mendis' third victim.

VVS Laxman and Ishant Sharma (13no) managed a last-wicket stand of 35 before Mendis (4-72) bowled Laxman (56) to end the innings at 223.

Follow-on

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene asked India to go back in and once again unleashed his spinners on a wearing surface at the SSC in Colombo.

The tourists lost Virender Sehwag (13), trapped lbw by Muralitharan, prior to lunch, and Mendis followed up shortly after the interval by removing Laxman (21) - promoted to number three - for the second time in the day.

Brief resistance from Sachin Tendulkar (12) and Gautam Gambhir (43) was ended by Muralitharan, and India's survival hopes were finished when Sourav Ganguly (10), Rahul Dravid (4) and Dinesh Karthik (0) all departed within the space of three overs.

Muralitharan (6-26) completed his personal haul by bowling opposition captain Kumble (12), and Mendis (4-60) flummoxed tailenders Harbhajan Singh (15) and Zaheer Khan (3) to seal the result less than an hour after tea.

India have little time to regroup before the second Test of the three-match series starts in Galle on July 31.

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