Dilshan and Paranavitana made short work of the chase as Sri Lanka beat India by 10 wickets in first Test match at Galle. Sri Lanka have richly deserved their victory especially since a day and a half was lost due to rain. Murali Tharan took the last wicket to cap a fairy-tale ending to his career as he ended up on 800 wickets.

Sri Lanka have richly deserved their victory especially since a day and a half was lost due to rain. It looked like the game would end in a draw after an entire 2nd day was lost due to rain, but the 'Gods' were determined to give Murali a fitting send off. Everything went right for Sri Lanka that they batted well in the 1st innings. Then Murali took 5 wickets to force India to follow on.

India had to bat out five full sessions to save the game, but Malinga made sure that India would struggle to push the game beyond the lunch break on day 5. Murali took the last wicket to cap a fairy-tale ending to his career as he ended up on 800 wickets. Dilshan and Paranavitana made short work of the chase as Sri Lanka beat India by 10 wickets in first Test match at Galle.

India have always been poor starters in a test series, so this is nothing new. But what should bother them is that their bowling does not look like taking 20 wickets. Gambhir is awfully out of form, Dravid and Laxman seem to be getting into a shell when they are batting. So lots of questions which have to be answered by the team management ahead of the 2nd test which starts in 4 days time. India have invariably fought back after losing the opening test of a series, so it remains to be seen whether that happens again.

Murali was taken around the ground by his team-mates. The crowd were giving him a standing ovation as he displayed that famous grin of his. It felt good that he will still play in the ODIs and the T20s. The whole of Sri Lanka will rejoice today. The president of Lanka, Mahinda Rajapakse, along with a host of distinguished dignitaries, which includes a number of former team-mates of Murali are in attendance today. The entire family of Murali was there too to make it even more special for the spin magician. On Murali's acheivement, Haroon Lorgat said "It is a very special day, on behalf of the ICC, SLC and BCCI, we wish Murali all the best for the future. I want to congratulate Murali for his mega achievement".

Lasith Malinga was declared the Man of the Match for his all round performance. Malinga's performance in this test has been the best all-round performance from a Sri Lankan cricketer till date beating Vaas who had taken 6 wickets and scored 51 runs against New Zealand.