Muttiah Muralitharan spun a web of magic for a match haul of 11 wickets to send a spineless India crashing to a humiliating innings and 239 run defeat against Sri Lanka in the first cricket Test in Colombo on Saturday.

The wily Muralitharan gave ample display of his guiles by capturing five wickets in the first innings and claiming a phenomenal six for 26 to bundle out the Indians for a paltry 138 in the second innings to steer his team to their biggest win at home.

The 36-year-old Murali found an able ally in \'mystery\' spinner Ajantha Mendis who also made an impressive debut with a match haul of eight wickets to disintegrate the visitors with one full day to spare.

It was an abject surrender by India\'s star-studded batting line-up which first failed to avoid follow-on, being dismissed for 223 in reply to Lanka\'s 600 for 6 declared, and then were skittled out for 138 in the second innings in just 45 overs at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground.

This was India\'s third heaviest Test defeat. Earlier, West Indies beat India by an innings and 336 runs at Kolkata in 1958, while England thumped them by an innings and 285 runs at Lord\'s in 1974.

Only opener Gautam Gambhir (43) provided a semblance of resistance but none of the other Indian batsmen could counter the spin threat to allow the islanders to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Although the SSC track had not deteriorated too much, the Indians showed a complete lack of application and seemed to have learnt little from their first innings debacle.

The two teams will now travel to Galle for the second Test which gets underway from July 31. The experienced Indian batting line-up seemed to have no clue to the spinners as Virender Sehwag (13), VVS Laxman (21), Sachin Tendulkar (12), Rahul Dravid (10) and Sourav Ganguly (4) perished in quick succession to shatter any hopes of a fight back.

The ICC\'s experimental rule of allowing teams to review umpire\'s decision also came handy for the home team as Sehwag, Tendulkar and Dravid, who were initially given not out by the field-umpire, were adjudged out after viewing television replays.

Resuming their first innings at 159 for six, India required an extraordinary display of batting from skipper Anil Kumble and Laxman to avoid the follow on.

However, nothing worked as Muralitharan (5/84) and Mendis (4/72) continued toying with the Indian batting and wrapped up the innings in the first session itself.

Laxman fought well for his 56 runs before becoming the fourth victim of mystery spinner Mendis. Before being bowled by Mendis, Laxman and Ishant Sharma (13) did their best to delay the inevitable with a dogged 35-run partnership for the last wicket.

After enforcing the follow on, Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene opted to deploy a spin and pace combination to unsettle the jittery Indian batsmen though Gambhir and Tendulkar tried to hold their nerves.

Laxman too begun on a confident note and hammered three boundaries in his brief stay of 21.