Murali claims record but India dominate

Feb 5 2009

Muttiah Muralitharan became the leading one-day international wicket-taker of all time on Thursday but was unable to prevent India posting a commanding 332 for five in the fourth one-day international with Sri Lanka in Colombo.

The off-spinner removed the impressive Gautam Gambhir for 150 in his final over - his 503rd scalp - but the opener had already done the damage by scoring his first century of the series.

India's total meant Sri Lanka faced a tough run chase to avoid going 4-0 down in the five-match series.

Sri Lanka's opening bowlers Farveez Maharoof and Nuwan Kulasekara managed to limit India's scoring early on and made a breakthrough when Sanath Jayasuriya caught Virender Sehwag at mid-off in the third over off Kulasekara.

The tourists reached 50 in the first 10 overs but began to step up their innings with MS Dhoni, who had promoted himself to three, and Gambhir.

Dhoni smashed Angelo Mathews through the covers to bring up India's 100 in the 18th over before he lofted Muralitharan over deep midwicket to bring his fifty up shortly after.

Dilhara Fernando made a superb one-handed catch to remove the India captain off the bowling of Jayasuriya, with Dhoni falling just six runs short of what would have been his first century of the series.

Gambhir kept the innings going strong before Kulasekara dismissed Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan with successive balls to reduce India to 207 for four.

Dilhara Fernando proved an expensive introduction to the attack and Gambhir had racked up nine boundaries by the time he had reached his century with 239 on the board.

Maharoof and Kulasekara returned at the death but they could not prevent Gambhir reaching 150 before being dismissed by Muralitharan in the 48th over. Suresh Raina hit a 37-ball 49 to round off an impressive India innings.