Muttiah Muralitharan stars with a five-for

It was Lasith Malinga who dealt the crucial blows in the second innings but the story of the day, though, was Muttiah Muralitharan. He collected his 67th five-for to help Sri Lanka enforce the follow on. No fuss. Just another day in the world of Muralitharan.

He was introduced, quite puzzlingly, rather late in the first session but he didn't miss the opportunity to stamp his presence. Dhoni and Yuvraj had shared a 74-run partnership and seemingly had things under control when Murali showcased his class.

First up, he swallowed Dhoni with his signature offbreak: the ball looped across and landed on a length outside off but it was the dip that threw doubts in Dhoni's mind. Dhoni stumbled forward, saw the ball dip rapidly on him and decided to desperately lunge out in the end to defend. The ball broke back in sharply to find the fatal bat-pad gap.

Murali then went around the stumps and lured Yuvraj forward with a flighted offbreak. It drifted in with the angle, dipped, gripped, turned and took the outside edge to slip. Soon after, Harbhajan Singh was left stranded down the track by Rangana Herath after an ambitious attempt at a lofted drive, and Murali wrapped up the tail shortly after lunch.

He had his moment under the sun in the second innings as well. Right at the end of the day, post the fall of Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, Murali removed Yuvraj in a similar fashion as in the first innings. The flighted off break ripped across, lured Yuvraj forward into a defensive poke and caught the edge. Murali had shoved India into the abyss.