Mumbai, December 05 : Mahendra Singh Dhoni completed a century of dismissals when he caught Angelo Mathews off the bowling of Pragyan Ojha.
Unnecessarily chasing an away a lovely spinning delivery from Ojha, Mathews could only manage a faint edge as Sri Lanka’s prospects went from bad to worse.
Mathews made just 5 runs and with his wicket, umpires announced the tea break.
Sri Lankans were tottering at 144/5.
Zaheer Khan did the star turn for India, providing a double breakthrough with the wickets of Mahela Jayawardene and Thilana Samaraveera.
First when he induced an edge from a tentative Mahela Jayawardene to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and then, two overs later, he duped Samaraveera with the lift, inducing a low catch at second slip to VVS Laxman.
Former Sri Lankan captain made just 12 runs, while Samarveera failed to open his account, leaving Kumara Sangakkara to wage a lonely battle.
However, it was Sreesanth who ignited the collapse when he broke through Tharanga Paranavitana’s resistance to give India their second success of the day.
Paranavitana, who had displayed great composure during his 54-run knock, was caught plumb in front of the wicket to a near perfect length delivery from Sreesanth that came into the batsman after pitching on the middle and off-stump.
Paranavitana’s defiance had lasted 144 balls and contained 8 sweetly timed hits to the fence as he seemed to have steadied the Sri Lankan ship with a solid 90 run-partnership with Sangakkara for the second wicket after Tillakaratne Dilshan’s early loss.
Harbhajan had struck the first nail in Sri Lanka’s coffin when he trapped the dangerman and first innings centurion Dilshan, LBW for 16 runs.
Sri Lanka had been looking at Dilshan, with his positive approach, to anchor the team to safety before Harbhajan poured cold water to their aspirations.
Replays however suggested that Dilshan, for the second time in the match, got a tough decision against him.
Meanwhile, Sangakkara slammed his first half-century on Indian soil, looking determined to redeem himself, but he seemed to be in danger of running out of partners.
With a cushion of 333 runs, India looked to exploit the luxury of attacking the Sri Lankan batsmen to hilt. A victory at Brabourne would not only clinch a comprehensive series victory for India, but also would make them the number one team on the ICC Test rankings.
With their hopes of recording first ever Test victory rudely blown apart by Virender Sehwag (293) on Thursday, and then MS Dhoni (100 not out) on Friday, Sri Lanka would need to need a miracle to escape another humiliating defeat here.
—Agencies