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GALLE, Wednesday - What will Sri Lanka do without Murali? This question has been posed several times over in the recent past and the plain answer is "They will be helpless".

At the Galle International Stadium today, champion off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan came up with a brilliant bowling performance taking 6 for 125 off 53.3 overs to bring Sri Lanka back into contention in the first Test against the West Indies, when at one time, it looked as the game would be taken away from them.

In 13 and a half overs, Muralitharan snaffled five batsmen for just 21 runs including the wicket of batting maestro Brian Lara as West Indies, with prospects of achieving a total in excess of 500 crashed to 448 all out, 64 minutes after lunch.

In fact, West Indies who went to lunch at 409 for four with Lara going strong on 167, lost their last six wickets for a mere 25 runs as Muralitharan, with some excellent left-arm support from Chaminda Vaas made inroads into the West Indies batting.

Sri Lanka in reply lost Sanath Jayasuriya for a quick 25 made off 19 balls before he slashed at Mervyn Dillon to cover points hands. But Marvan Atapattu (46) and Kumar Sangakkara (27) consolidated to take the total to 103 for one by the close, brought forward by 25 minutes due to bad light. It was Lara's dismissal at 423 that sparked off the West Indies collapse.

Muralitharan finally had his man top edging a sweep at 178 and wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara coming off with a superb one-handed take in front of the stumps. From there onwards it was a procession of batsmen crossing each other on the field as they succumbed to the wiles of Muralitharan and the left-arm pace of Vaas. As much as Muralitharan, Vaas also bowled well although his final figures of 4 for 96 doesn't actually reveal his contribution on a pitch which is still good for batting.

"Apart from Vaas and me, no one did bowl really well. If they bowled well it would have taken off my heavy job load. In the Indian series the fast bowlers took wickets and it was made easy for me," said Muralitharan after his marathon bowling performance.

"I always enjoyed bowling because I am picked in the side for it. I always think my job is to bowl and if the captain ask me to bowl 40 overs I will do it." "I enjoyed the challenge of bowling to a world class batsman like Lara because he is such a wonderful player. I rate him as one of the best in the world along with Sachin (Tendulkar). Andy Flower is another good player of spin. Unlike other players, Lara doesn't have any restrictions, he can play all round the wicket. It is always a challenge to bowl to him," said Muralitharan.

"I always come up with a plan against such batsmen. I know the batsman has to make only one mistake and I will get him. I can make many mistakes and still get his wicket," he said.

Muralitharan said it was a very good spell of bowling, but initially Lara, Hooper and Sarwan played really well on a good batting track. "I think this the best batting pitch we had at Galle in the last seven Tests here. We thought if we can get Hooper and Lara out, we have only the inexperienced batsmen coming through and we can get the wickets. But unfortunately, Lara got a big one hundred," he said.

Muralitharan said although the wicket was still good for batting, a winning result was still possible on it. "I think it will start to turn after the third day and it is going to be a lot harder to bat on. If you really spin the ball, it is going to spin a long way on the fourth and fifth days," said Muralitharan.

West Indies could be thankful that Muralitharan was not bowling at his best on the first day when they rattled off 316 for three wickets. "On the first day my rhythm was quite not there, but on the second day when I came on it was coming really nice and it got better and better as the day went by," said Muralitharan, who had ice packs kept on his bowling arm to overcome a sore shoulder after trying to do some weights shortly before the team left for Sharjah.

The Sri Lankan spin champion's final figures of six for 125 was the 29th occasion he had taken five wickets or more in a Test innings in his 66-Test career.

Lara made 178, his 16th Test century, in 361 minutes facing 293 balls and hitting 19 fours.

Until his dismissal Lara batted with absolute control completing his 150 with a splendid cover drive off newcomer Buddhika Fernando. It took him 303 minutes and 239 balls and comprised 17 fours.

But soon afterwards he lost his captain Carl Hooper for 69 when Muralitharan achieved the only success for Sri Lanka in the morning. In his third over of the day, Muralitharan held on to a hot drive from Hooper off his own bowling to end a record fourth wicket partnership of 153 in three hours. The previous best was also between the same pair of 97 at St. Vincent in 1996-97.

Hooper faced 120 balls and hit seven fours in his knock which ended 26 minutes before the lunch break.

Muralitharan then came back to bowl Marlon Samuels for 16 to leave West Indies at 434 for six. Vaas then picked up the wickets of Ridley Jacobs who was caught behind for eight and Mervyn Dillon who edged a catch to Jayasuriya at first slip at five as West Indies slid to 448 for eight. At the same total Muralitharan cleaned up the tail by sending back Neil McGarrell for five caught off bat and pad by Arnold at silly point and Colin Stuart bowled for a duck without offering a shot.

It was a fine comeback by Sri Lanka after a pretty ordinary first day when they conceded 316 runs for a meagre reward of just three wickets.

WEST INDIES - 1ST INNINGS
  (overnight 316-3)

D. Ganga c Jayawardene b Vaas		 47
C. Gayle c Sangakkara b Vaas		  9
R. Sarwan b Muralitharan		 88
B. Lara c Sangakkara b Muralitharan	178
C. Hooper c and b Muralitharan		 69
M. Samuels b Muralitharan		 16
R. Jacobs c Sangakkara b Vaas		  8
N. McGarrell c Arnold b Muralitharan	  4
M. Dillon c Jayasuriya b Vaas		  5
D. Ramnarine not out			  0
C. Stuart b Muralitharan		  0
Extras (B-8, LB-6, NB-5)		 19
Penalty runs (b. h. fielding helmet)	  5
TOTAL (all out, 141.3 overs)		448

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15, 2-95, 3-240, 4-393,
5-423, 6-434, 7-440, 8-448, 9-448, 10-448.
BOWLING:
Vaas 31-5-96-4 (3nb), Buddhika 18-2-80-0 (1nb),
Muralitharan 53.3-11-125-6, Bandaratillake 22-3-76-0,
Jayasuriya 9-2-24-0, Samaraweera 6-0-24-0(1nb),
Arnold 2-1-4-0.

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS

M. Atapattu  not out			 46
S. Jayasuriya c McGarrell b Dillon	 25
K. Sangakkara not out			 27
Extras (LB-2, NB-2, W-1)		  5
TOTAL (one wkt at close, 35 overs)	103

Fall of wicket: 1-37.
TO BAT: 
M. Jayawardene,R. Arnold,H. Tillakaratne,T. Samaraweera,
C. Vaas,N. Bandaratillake,C. Buddhika,M. Muralitharan.
BOWLING: Dillon 10-4-33-1, Stuart 5-0-24-0 (1w, 2nb),
McGarrell 9-2-17-0, Ramnarine 6-2-16-0, Harper 5-0-11-0.

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