Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra shared five wickets between them as India reduced Sri Lanka to 143 for eight in their second innings at lunch on the fourth day of the third and final cricket Test here on Friday.
Thilan Samaraweera(33) and Ajantha Mendis, (10) were at the crease at the end of the first session at the P. Sara Oval stadium here.
After Virender Sehwag struck twice late on Thursday to give India a toehold, Ojha and Mishra carried on the good work and unleashed some quality spin bowling to strangle the Sri Lankan middle order.
Resuming at 45 for two, the hosts lost their first wicket early in the day when Suraj Randiv, who was lucky to be dropped by wicket keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was finally dismissed the next ball being trapped lbw by Ojha.
Overnight at an individual score of 12, skipper Kumar Sangakkara began by stabbing Ojha's outside-the-off-stump delivery for a boundary at the slip region.
New batsmen Mahela Jayawardene who took 11 balls to open his account began with a boundary of Ojha at the cover point boundary.
The former captain, however, perished as he nicked an Ojha delivery flighted around off and middle to the Dravid at slips.
The Lankans suffered the third jolt of the day when Sangakkara trying to break the spin web ended by driving a Ojha delivery straight into the hands of Suresh Raina, who grabbed the catch in his second attempt.
15 balls later, a low full toss by Amit Mishra caught Angelo Mathews (5) unaware as he ended up giving a catch to Sachin Tendulkar at mid-wicket.
Mishra was on a hat-trick chance when in the very next ball wicket keeper Prasanna Jayawardene was trapped leg before wicket.
Samaraweera and Malinga then gave some respectability to the Sri Lankan total as both opened up and scored mainly in boundaries.
After hitting Ojha to the long off boundary, Samaraweera creamed a full delivery around off stump from Mishra through the covers, before cutting a Sehwag delivery through the covers.
Malinga on his part cut a Ojha delivery through the cover point boundary after he had edged the same bowler for a boundary.
Malinga finally fell to a quickish delivery from Sehwag as it hit him right in the front of the middle stump.