Sri Lanka's champion off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan spun his side into pole position in the decisive final Test with a virtuoso performance in Colombo on Wednesday.

Muralitharan, who took eight wickets 87 runs, said afterwards: "It's good to be among the wickets because I was disappointed when we lost the second Test at Kandy last week."

"I should have taken more than the four wickets I got there, but I am happy to contribute here after India made a good start."

"I think this is my second best effort ever and was particularly pleasing because the Indians are very good players of spin," he mused. "My performance in England at the Oval (where Muralitharan picked up nine for 65) though was the best, because it was played in England on a good firm wicket."

India were in a strong position at lunch on 91 for one. Muralitharan praised both Shiv Sunder Das and Sadogoppan Ramesh for "playing really well."

"They were going to attack me after lunch and I got a wicket because of that, which gave me a lot of confidence," said Muralitharan, who then took three wickets in 26 balls in the post lunch session, to the turn the match on it's head.

"The wickets of Ramesh and Das were important, but for me those of Ganguly and Dravid are really crucial because Ganguly is a very good player and Dravid is a very difficult customer," he said. "If Dravid had stayed there he even could well have got a hundred, so his wicket helped us to come right back into the game after that brief partnership between Badani and him."

The curator himself had said the wicket would be ideal for fast bowlers, but at the end of the day it was a spinner who ended up with eight wickets.

Muralitharan, however, said: "I knew it'll spin here."

The tour has been dominated by talk of fast pitches but he believes: "You can't prepare really fast wickets, like in Australia and South Africa, in Sri Lanka because the surface is too dry. At the end of the day it will always spin here."

"This SSC track provided me with a little bit of help," he said. "When I bowled in Kandy the wicket was too slow, it kept low and was easy to bat on, but here you there is some bounce which can make it a real handful for the batsmen."

Murali bowled a marathon spell of 34.1 overs without a break: "I was tired. But I told Sanath that I'll bowl from one end and asked for someone to keep one end tight. It worked for us well."

Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore was fulsome in his praise of Muralitharan: "The pitch didn't hold any demons, which makes his performance today even more incredible. The way he kept his control and concentration for nearly five hours was amazing. He beat the batsmen in the air and off the pitch he is an out and out champion."

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, clearly disappointed by his controversial leg before decision, but tight lipped because of ICC regulations said afterwards: "With a start like that we had no business to get out so quickly. The batsmen just threw it away. We were just not disciplined."

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