http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157 - the greatest of all time
Stand up and take a bow as one of the greatest test career’s of all time is coming to an end. The uncrowned king of spin is at work in Galle as he bids to become the only man in the history of the game to take 800 test wickets and perhaps the last man who will ever achieve such a feat in the days to come.
Given the modern structure of international cricket, it is almost impossible for any other bowler to even get close to the 800 test wicket mark, let alone surpass this record.
So this is how Muttiah Muralitharan has changed cricket since his arrival. Murali is to spin bowling quite similar to what Elvis was to rock and roll and what Newton was to motion Physics. The first test between Sri Lanka and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 is about to come to an end. But more than a Sri Lankan win, everyone around the globe is waiting for Murali to take one more Indian wicket to become the only bowler to take 800 test wickets in the world.
The great entertainer just doesn’t stop there as he is a treat to watch with the bat as well. Disappointingly, his first innings in the test did not contain any sixes, a statistic that is surely one of the less-trumpeted ones in an illustrious 18 year test career but worth mentioning nonetheless. He is the sixth batsmen in the all-time list six hitters in test cricket for Sri Lanka behind stalwarts like Ranatunga, Jayewardene, Jayasuria, Aravinda de Silva and Sangakkara
Out of Murali’s 1256 Test runs, 13.8% have come from sixes - a very impressive feat for a man who does not know much about batting. Only Shoaib Akhtar with a percentage of 24.3% and Michael Holding with 23.7% are better than Murali in the bowler’s rankings in the international arena. Murali also has the fifth highest batting strike rate amongst players who have scored over a 1000 test runs. He is a no nonsense tail-ender who does not believe in nudging or blocking the balls.
1992 was perhaps the greatest year in the history of spin bowling as three of the modern day greats made their debuts. Shane Warne debuted on the 2nd of January, Murali was introduced in August and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Anil-Kumble-c44737 was recalled to the Indian squad in October after a solitary test in 1990. In just one year, spin bowling, which was a seemingly a dying art in the world at that time was re-launched with the introduction of these great bowlers.
On another front, Sri Lankan cricket will surely miss this great bowler. Murali has accounted for 40% of the wickets in the tests in which he played in and bowled 33% of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758’s overs – two astounding ratios that are unmatched by anyone in the world. Sri Lanka has only won 53 test matches out of the 131 tests that Murali has played in. But on the flip side of the coin, Sri Lanka has only managed to win 7 test matches out of a total of 61 tests in which Murali was not a part of the team. It is a glaring testament to the affect that he has had on the Sri Lankan side.
The only man in the history of the game that comes close to matching Murali’s feat is Richard Hadlee of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 who took 35% of his teams wickets and bowled 25% of their overs during his career with the side. Hadlee was the leading wicket taker in 22 matches that the kiwis won with him in the side and failed to register a single win when he was missing in the remaining 14 tests.
With such figures, Murali will be missed not only by Sri Lankan cricket, but the entire cricketing world as well.
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