Galle (Sri Lanka), July 22: Sri Lanka closed in on a victory in the first cricket Test against India, leaving the visitors tottering at 292 for eight at lunch on the fifth day here Thursday.
V.V.S. Laxman was resolutely batting on 58 while Ishant Sharma was on 18. Following on, India have taken a slender lead of 48 runs but with two complete session of play remaining, it is a matter of time before Sri Lanka bowl out the visitors and knock off the runs.
Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who is playing his last Test, is one wicket short of claiming 800 Test wickets.
Muralitharan, who took five Indian wickets in the first innings, claimed the wicket of Harbhajan Singh in the morning, his second in the innings.
But the real damage was done by express-fast Lasith Malinga, who dismissed Mahendra Singh Dhoni (4) and Abhimanyu Mithun (25) to dash India's hopes.
Maliga crashed Dhoni's stumps with a stinging fast delivery and got rid of Mithun with a similar fast ball.
India, who started the day at 181 for five, were soon reduced to 246 for eight and looked heading towards an innings defeat.
Laxman and Sharma, however, shared an unbeaten 46 run to surpass Sri Lanka's first innings total of 520.
Laxman played 168 deliveries and struck 11 fours while Sharma managed well to face 39 balls.
Muralitharan was getting considerable turn from the fifth day wicket and struck the pad a couple of times, only to be turned down by the umpire.