Muttiah Muralitharan’s Last Test Match

Muttiah Muralitharan’s Last Test Match

Muttiah Muralitharan is probably the greatest spinner to play the game. He made his debut in the longest format of the game against Australia in Colombo in 1992 and grabbed 3 for 141. Craig McDermott was his first victim in test cricket. Muralithatan was the first wrist-spinning off-spinner in cricket. Apart from his stock delivery which is the off-spin, the Kandy-born bowler had Doosa and Top Spin in the armory to deceive the batters. The stalwart is the fastest bowler to take 350 to 800 test wickets and he has also registered the most five-wicket hauls in a test innings by a bowler (67).

Muralitharan played his last test match during India’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2010 in Galle. First, he picked up a fifer (5/63) in the first innings to restrict India to 276 and then took 3/128 in the 2nd innings to fold India for 338 runs. On the back of his superb bowling, Lanka won the game by 10 wickets. Murali’s preys were MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, etc. Pragyan Ojha was Murali’s 800th victim in test cricket. Despite bowling exceptionally well, he could not win the Man of the Match award as his compatriot Lasith Malinga took 7 wickets and scored 64 runs in the game.

The spin wizard signed off in style from the toughest format with 800 wickets in 133 matches at a stunning average of 22.7.