Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan ended his test career today on a high by securing a career haul of 800 wickets as Sri Lanka thrashed India by a massive 10 wickets in the first of a 3 match test series between the subcontinental neighbors, in Galle, Sri Lanka.
When Muralitharan announced his retirement from Test Cricket couple of weeks back, he left himself with just a solitary test match and a tantalizing prospect of pocketing 8 more wickets to get to the magical 800. He accomplished this challenging feat in his swansong with a fairytale ending to a wonderful Test Cricket career that spanned 133 test matches and 18 years. The world record holder’s exploits also overshadowed an emphatic win by Sri Lanka and a match complexion changing bowling effort from Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga.
Match seemed headed towards a draw before Malinga’s fiery bursts floored key batsmen and the scene was set for Muralitharan to perform his last act and a tense and fitting finale amidst diminishing time, looming clouds and a brave rearguard action from the Indian tail-enders. It looked a perfect script as Muralitharan foxed Pragyan Ojha with an off-break to produce an edge snapped by captain and his best catching ally in Mahela Jayawardena, to reach 800 wickets and put Sri Lanka into a position from where they could not lose.
OnlineNewsHeardNow.com,
Arun