Bye, Bye Murali!

 

BYE, BYE, Murali

Hats off to MURALI

Number of tests	Number of wickets
18 years back	First wicket
27th test	100 wickets
42nd test	200 wickets
58th test	300 wickets
72nd test	400 wickets equaled with Kapil Dev’s record of 434 wickets
87th test	500 wickets
101st test	600 wickets
133rd test	800 wickets

 

Country	No. of wickets
England	112 wickets
India	105 wickets
South Africa	104 wickets
Bangala Desh	89 wickets
Zimbabwe	87 wickets
West Indies	82 wickets
New Zeland	82 wickets
Pakistan	80 wickets
Australia	79 wickets

 

Muttiah Muralitharan (born April 17, 1972 in Kandy), also simply referred to as Murali, is a Sri Lankan cricketer specializing in off spin bowling. He has been a member of the Sri Lankan cricket team since 1992 since making his Test debut against Australia at Colombo in the Australian cricket tour of Sri Lanka of 1992 and ODI against India at Colombo in 1993. Muralitharan is the only Tamil in the Sri Lankan cricket team Statistically, he is without a doubt the most effective spin bowler ever to play cricket in both forms of the game (Test and One Day International). Currently his record stands at over with 708 wickets from 116 matches. This compares favourably to other contemporary spin bowlers; Shane Warne‘s bowling average is 25, Anil Kumble’s 28 and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh‘s 27.

In 2002, Wisden named him the greatest bowler of all time. On May 8, 2004, in Zimbabwe, he overtook West Indian Courtney Walsh’s then record of 519 Test match wickets to become the highest-wicket taker of all time, and it seems likely that the new record he eventually sets will not be beaten for many years to come. Warne, an Australian leg-spinner, is his only current rival for that record; he overtook Muralitharan’s number of wickets in late 2004. Warne believes that Muralitharan will eventually be the one to finish with the record, saying he believes that Muralitharan will take “1000 wickets” before he retires. Later that year, Muralitharan became an ambassador for the United Nations World Food Program, and joined the campaign to prevent children around the world going hungry.

A notable feature of Muralitharan is his unique run-up action of “flapping wings” resembling the flapping wings of a chicken and bulging eyes, in which the latter adds a somewhat painful look to his highly effective bowling. He is considered as a “big turner” of the ball due to the amount of spin he puts on the ball with his fingers, in addition to the flighting of the ball that is very hard for a batsman to play at.

His main weapons include the off-break which turns into the batsman and the stumps, the top-spinner which goes straight on and is bowled at a faster speed then a normal off-break, and his controversial doosra, which is his version of a leg-break that turns away from a batsman and the stumps. 

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