Colombo: Sri Lanka's manipulative spin domination introduced by the double-edged M factor has India's showy batsmen in a major quandary as the tourist continue to slide towards an innings defeat Saturday.

With Muttiah Muralitharan collecting his 65th ten wicket Test haul and debutant Ajantha Mendis adding extra spice to ... ...spin mix, India's second innings has all but imploded at 103-6 at tea at the Sinhalese Sports Club.

Day four has been all about Sri Lanka's impressive domination as India's big named batting quartet failed again to master not only Murali's impressive bowling display but to an extent also created their own down by failing to use their feet as a four-day defeat loomed.

Rahul Dravid was the fifth wicket to fall in what has been a procession in the second session of day four that has seen India's batting image left in tatters and without the hope of survival.

Dravid's dismissal came from another review as the innings was blown apart and wreckage lay all over the scoreboard with only VVS Laxman and Gautam Gambhir going past 20.

From the time they were forced to follow on 377 runs adrift and after being bowled out for 223, they have struggled to maintain any type of skill and will need to take this lesson with them to Galle next week.

From the moment VVS Laxman was trapped lbw for 21 by Mendis with the top-spin flick, the innings was in trouble, especially as the bowlers were making the ball kick at times. It was the pressure exerted by Murali in partnership with Mendis that left the tourists groping without success.

Sachin Tendulkar was undone by a Murali delivery that he attempted to sweep and gloved a catch that was referred by Mark Benson while the dismissal of Gautam Gambhir was a classic piece of stumping work by Prasana Jayawardene with Murali beating the opening batsman with flight as the batsman attempted an expansive cover drive.

With Sourav Ganguly edging a catch to Tillekeratne Dilshan off Murali, the innings was almost sealed when Dravid fell nine balls later for 10.

The flames on the pyre of defeat began to burn brighter when immediately after tea, Dinesh Karthik was picked up by the wicketkeeper.

There will be some debate over the Virender Sehwag dismissal after it had been referred and made him the first to be given out by the system.

in the last over before lunch that catapulted India into further trouble. The total of 25-1 – left India 352 adrift in their follow-on innings with nine wickets reramining.

Despite a two-hour half century by VVS Laxman, the tourists were confused and bemused by menace and wiles of the veteran Muralitharan and debutant Ajantha Mendis who snared 10 of the 11 wickets between them so far in this Test.

When they followed on, India were already 377 runs behind the Sri Lanka total of 600-6 declared when they were dismissed 45 minutes before lunch for 223 – losing four wickets for 64 runs of which a last wicket partnership of 35 between Laxman and Ishant Sharma at least displayed some needed backbone.

After stinging criticism from their coach Gary Kirsten Friday night over how they performed, it still remains how three of the so-called fabulous four were dismissed by quality bowling: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Laxman were all bowled by quality bowling.

Debutant Ajantha Mendis who had cleaned up Dravid the Saturday with a flick topspinner, delivered the coup de grace to the innings with a well-disguised delivery that spun inside the Laxman forward defence and bowled him. It is the sort of bowling that excites the mind of the connoisseurs and creates doubt in the mind of the batsmen.

Murali had first innings figures of five for eighty for and the dismissal of Sehwag has given him six so far in the game. It was the third ball of his first over of the second innings that undid Sehwag who foolishly padded up to the streetwise spinner.

If anything Sehwag's action to pad up explains India's over-confidence, for although he was well forward, the ball pitched about leg stump and the tracking device used went in favour of the bowler.

But the decision and the shot selection has been typical of the Indian batsmen so far this match. They have not applied themselves while the bowlers forced the batsmen into errors by careless strokeplay. Sehwag's second innings dismissal is an example of how not to bat against the wiles of Murali.

From the start of the day's play, when Anil Kumble fell lbw to Mendis for a single, the pressure was on India to even reach 200. It was a struggle that left seemingly them bereft of ideas on how to cope with new-comer Mendis, who delivers the ball at a fair pace.

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