Muttiah Muralitharan spent five months oiling his joints for the Test series with England and cranked out his magic immediately to provide Sri Lanka with the initiative in Galle.

Despite a late fightback by the tourists, the Sri Lankans closed 195 runs ahead with five second-innings wickets intact on a surface providing expansive turn, particularly from the propeller wrists of Murali.

The 31-year-old's figures of 31.4-15-46-7 were the fourth-best of his 83-Test career and the top return in Sri Lanka's most southerly venue since its inception in 1998.

Perhaps England should have expected as much given his success bowling under the walls of the 16th-century Dutch fort. His last five Tests here produced an incredible 48 wickets and his 67 victims in nine appearances have cost just 14.6 runs apiece.

Coping with the amount of spin was beyond the English batsmen, who struggled to detect a wrong 'un, which zips in exaggerated fashion off the pitch, as they were dismissed for 235.

Last time they were here the countering of Murali was integral to their 2-1 series victory but the master off-spinner has been preparing for their return during a lull in Sri Lanka's Test schedule stretching back to June, either side of a short spell with Kent.

''It has been something I have been working on and it has definitely improved. It turns more,'' said Murali, of the ball which he whizzes away from the right-hander.

''The wrist has got used to doing more. If you take wickets in the first innings of the series the pressure is lifted off you and on to the batsmen. When the pressure is on you might struggle a bit.''

Mark Butcher, who top-scored for England with a first half-century of the winter, claimed the combat with Murali was the ultimate challenge, particularly dealing with the reverse of his usual off-break.

''It was massive,'' said Butcher, who forged a painstaking 75-run partnership over 37 overs with Graham Thorpe.

''He has always been able to bowl it but I have never seen him spin it that much and with the disguise he had on it.

''I have not faced him bowling as well as that before. He was very difficult to pick today.

''Myself and Graham have played a lot against him in county cricket and Test matches and both of us were pretty confident going into the Test series, having managed to pick him on various occasions. But in this match it has been no more than 50 per cent of the time.

''He bowled magnificently - faster than I have ever known him before and that makes it incredibly tricky to guess which way it is going to go.

''It was very hot, humid and the ball was spinning every which way, so you have to really keep your concentration.

''When a new batsman comes in Murali seems to bowl about six miles an hour quicker and it is incredibly difficult for guys to survive.''

Butcher rode his luck in the first 90 minutes, dropped from a return chance to Murali then in the off-spinner's next over by wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara.

Inbetween, Thorpe was given a let-off when umpire Daryl Harper halted Sri Lankan celebrations when Thilan Samaraweera held an edge off Sanath Jayasuriya's left-arm spin, wrongly adjudicating that the ball had been trapped into the ground on its way to slip.

But after Thorpe was pinned leg before by left-armer Chaminda Vaas, Murali levered out the middle-order.

Debutant Paul Collingwood and Chris Read were defeated by deliveries which left them either side of Andrew Flintoff succumbing to a sharply-turning off-break.

A loose slash at Jayasuriya ended Butcher's four-hour vigil and although the tail wagged in entertaining fashion as five sixes were plundered, Richard Johnson, who struck two of them, became the 466th of Murali's Test victims.

He fell in identical fashion to Ashley Giles, held on the square-leg boundary, to end the innings.

England spinners Giles and Gareth Batty claimed two wickets each as the 40 degree heat gave way to a cooler late afternoon.

''Even their batsmen have struggled and we haven't got a guy that is spinning it like Murali,'' said Butcher.

''The way the pitch is, you are always in with a chance of knocking over quick wickets.''

England did just that after the hosts threatened to pull out of sight at 72 for one.

It took an opportunistic run-out from Collingwood, who seized on the ball after it ricocheted off his boot at silly-point from a Marvan Atapattu drive, to send back first-innings top-scorer Kumar Sangakkara.

Michael Vaughan's men made the most of it, however, as Batty defeated Atapattu with an arm ball and pinned veteran home captain Hashan Tillekeratne leg before offering no shot.

Left-armer Giles, who remodelled his action at the end of the English season, got the ball to grip on a slow wicket and produced replica dismissals to get rid of Jayasuriya and Thilan Samaraweera, both falling to juggled slip catches by Marcus Trescothick