Murali threat looms large

When it comes to sub-continental conditions, it is imperative for spinners to build the pressure and force batsmen into mistakes. But the spinners who bowled 102 overs off 160 bowled so far failed miserably in both aspects.

Neither Harbhajan Singh nor Amit Mishra looked anywhere close to what they have been known for. As a result, they shared just one wicket between them, that too courtesy an umpiring error by Daryl Harper at the stroke of lunch.

It will be interesting to see whether Lankan spin great Muttiah Muralitharan can weave his magic around the Indian batsmen today. The wily fox has played two Tests at this venue before so he is not ignorant of the pitch. In his first Test here in 1994 he claimed three wicketsu00a0 which included Mohammed Azharuddin and Navjot Singh Sidhu, two very fine players of the turning ball. In 2005, he helped himself to six wickets in the Test.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni fell to him leg before wicket in both innings.

Back to yesterday: The Jayawardenes (Mahela, 204 not out, and Prasanna, 84 not out)u00a0 could push the ball into the gap for a single or a couple at will in the second session and the body language of the bowlers hinted that they had already surrendered.

Diplomatic Mahela
The senior Jayawardene evaded the question when asked whether he felt the Indian bowlers drooped their shoulders a little too early. "You probably should ask them. I wasn't concentrating on that," Mahela said. "It was very hot out there. We knew if we could grind them, the effort wasn't going to be there. It was important to concentrate very hard and we knew that once they come to that stage, we could get runs off them. So we had to be patient, which we did today."