Would India let Murali reach 800-wickets mark at Galle?
After their poor show in the warm-up games, the Indian team is determined to spoil the final test match of the Sri Lankan spin wizard http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157. The Galle Test that has started from Sunday, the 18th July would be Murali’s last appearance in the longest format of cricket and Sri Lanka is planning to celebrate the final Test appearance of the leading wicket taker.
The legendary off-spinner in his last test against India at the Galle International Stadium would need just eight wickets to complete his 800 test wickets in his career.
Murali’s fans want their favourite off-spinner to take those eight wickets before ending his controversial but marvellous Test career which spreads out to the last 18-years.
The Indian skipper Mahindra Singh Dhoni has expressed his side’s intentions of not letting Murali complete his 800 wickets haul. The richest cricketer in the world, Dhoni said that his side is the world number 1 team and would not allow the retiring spinner leave test cricket with some good memories of the last match.
Dhoni wished Murali good luck but said that his men are there to win the game. He added that Murali is a great bowler and his achievements in Test and ODI cricket are just extraordinary. Dhoni further explained that other than being a prolific cricketer, he is a great human being and people cherish his friendship.
"However, this is Test cricket and we do not intend to give our wickets easily. Our batsmen would like not to give him the opportunity to reach 800 wickets during the first Test," said the Indian captain.
Murali has claimed the highest number of wickets (792) in the world in his 132 Test match career. He is also a leading wicket-taker in one-day cricket with 515 wickets in his 334 ODI appearances. The leading wicket taker revealed last week that the opening Test match against India at Galle would be the last game of his test career as there is nothing left behind for him to aspire. Murali has taken 10 or more Test wickets while his 5-wicket haul in an innings came 66 times.
“I have achieved what I wanted to achieve. There is nothing left or any target to reach,” the Lankan spin wizard told the reporters while announcing his decision to quit the longest format of international cricket.
Earlier, the departing spin legend had talked of leaving the test arena after completing the home series against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 waiting for their turn.
The local media revealed that the magical spinner did not wait till the end of the Test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 to retire as he was not sure of managing the workload for the entire series.
The Sri Lanka Cricket is planning for a memorable farewell of the promising spinner of all times. In this regard, the SLC has invited all former Sri Lankan captains as well as the players who played with the leaving magical spinner to join him in his final match.
Ceremonial presentations both at the start and end of the match have been planned by the officials to sign off the spinner in an impressive style.
Murali’s track record at Galle shows that the spin wizard can reach the 800 wicket mark quite easily. Murali in his 14 tests that he played at the Galle International Stadium took 103 wickets. He played two test matches against India at Galle and took 13 wickets.
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