Muralitharan has India on the ropes

Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan snared four wickets to leave India struggling on 159 for six when bad light ended play early on the third day of the first Test in Colombo.

Muralitharan claimed the wickets of Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik to leave the tourists with a tough fight to save the follow-on in reply to Sri Lanka's 600 for six declared.

At stumps VVS Laxman was 19 not out and captain Anil Kumble was on one.

India coach Gary Kirsten said Sri Lanka had dominated the match so far.

"It has been a really disappointing test match," Kirsten said .

"We didn't play well yesterday and some poor shot-making today mean everyone has got reason to be disappointed.

"We are fully aware of the way we played and we need to accept the responsibilities for the way we played. We have got a lot of hard work to do to save this Test match."

Earlier, Tillakaratne Dilshan stroked 125 not out to become the fourth Sri Lankan batsman to hit a century in the innings.

Sri Lanka, resuming the day on 422-4, added 130 runs during an extended morning and a further 48 after lunch before making their declaration.

The Indian openers Sehwag (25) and Gambhir (39) started the innings positively, adding 36 in just five overs.

However, Sehwag then top-edged a hook off a well-directed bouncer from Nuwan Kulasekera as Sri Lanka set a leg-side trap.

After tea Sri Lanka seized the upper-hand with Gambhir, defeated by Muralitharan's flight, mistiming a drive to short cover.

In the next over Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka's new unorthodox finger spinner, bowled Rahul Dravid (14) with a perfectly pitched leg break that clipped his off stump.

Tendulkar, who started the series needing to score 172 runs to become the highest run scorer in test history, steadied the innings for a while.

However, he lost an intriguing duel with Muralitharan as he opted to leave the ball too late and chopped the ball onto his stumps having made 27.

After a 21-minute break for bad light, Muralitharan then dismissed Ganguly for 23 courtesy of a fine running catch from Kulasekera off a top-edged sweep.

Wicketkeeper Karthik finished the day badly for India being caught and bowled by Muralitharan off a wild slog-sweep.