India two wickets away from victory in Kanpur Test

India knocked off four Sri Lankan wickets in the morning session to position themselves two wickets away from a facile win in the third Test on Friday.

The Sri Lankans were 206 for eight at lunch, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

Thilan Samaraweera (54) and Ajantha Mendis (5) were batting at lunch with the Lankans still trailing the massive Indian first innings total by 207 runs.

Resuming at 57 for four, Sri Lanka were in for early jolt on Friday.

Overnight batsmen Angelo Mathews (15) decided to counter-attack and chose out-of-rhythm Zaheer Khan for some harsh treatment.

Zaheer's overpitched first ball of the day was driven down the ground, his second - a no ball - was pulled to the fence with ferocity and his third - again a no ball - scorched the cover area grass before crossing the rope.

Two balls later, Zaheer banged it short and Mathews' pull was little premature. Rahul Dravid rushed from gully to pouch the top edge.

The collective contribution of the Sri Lankan top order read a pathetic 79. Prasanna Jayawardene (29) and Thilan Samaraweera (44) batted positively, scoring at a brisk pace while not doing anything silly.

Samaraweera hit Sreesanth for three boundaries in the same over to assert himself, while Prasanna was not quiet either. The Sri Lankan stumper-batsman drove Zaheer, pulled Sreesanth and swept Pragyan Ojha with elan but looked ill at ease against Harbhajan Singh.

Two streaky boundaries off Harbhajan exposed his discomfiture against the offie and the spinner finally pushed one through the gate to rearrange the timbers and snap the sixth wicket stand that yielded 61 runs for the beleaguered islanders.

Rangana Herath (13) hit Harbhajan for back-to-back boundaries before the offie trapped him plumb in front.

Muttiah Muralitharan played a typical entertaining 11-ball knock of 29. The first three balls he faced, from Harbhajan, were hit for 6,4,4.

The first one cleared long on ropes and the next two went over mid-wicket. Muralitharan then went after Ojha, hitting him over long on for his second six but completely missed the line as the next delivery pegged back his stumps.

Samaraweera held up one end in Mendis' company but India would hope to wrap up the match when play resumes.