Win2Win Racing
27th July 2010, 12:06
Cricket bid farewell its greatest wicket-taker last week and how its greatest wicket-taker bid farewell to cricket. Sitting on 799 Test wickets, Sri Lanka needed just one more wicket to polish off a resounding victory against India. Cue another dismissal listed as c. Jayawardene b. Muralitharan – Pragyan Ojha the final victim of an astonishing Test career.
http://www.thecricketblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Muttiah-Muralitharan-001.jpg (http://www.thecricketblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Muttiah-Muralitharan-001.jpg)Muttiah Muralitharan has bowed out from Test cricket with 800 wickets
We are unlikely to witness such wicket-taking exploits ever again. 800 – a truly remarkable figure. The game has changed markedly this millennium with the advent of Twenty20 cricket and the increasingly infrequent staging of Test matches. These factors, combined with increasingly batsman-friendly tracks bode well for the safe-guarding of Muralitharan’s record.
That said there was a time when 500 Test wickets from one man seemed an impossible dream. Then along came Courtney Walsh. So 600 seemed impossible. Then along came Anil Kumble, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan to mark an extraordinary period of spin bowling.
Warne called time on his own splendid career having become the first man to reach the 700 landmark. His retirement from the upper echelons of the game paved the wicket-laden way for Murali to weave his way to the next – 800.
That he did cannot be overstated as an achievement. Even those of the persuasion that he is no more than a ‘chucker’ cannot help but be mightily impressed by the imprint that he has left on the game. Can anyone ever topple his record?
When casting your eye down the list of leading wicket-takers ever to have graced the game you have to scroll down to number 18 on the list to find the leader of the current batch of Test playing cricketers – Harbhajan Singh on 355. This assumes that Makhaya Ntini’s Test career is over.
Of the current field there appears to be no obvious candidate. Murali has hinted that Harbhajan Singh could overtake him but this is plainly false flattery – Singh is already 30 years old and doesn’t appear to posses the temperament or stamina to topple 800 wickets.
During his Test career Murali delivered some 44039 deliveries in order to claim his 800 wickets. Any pretender to his throne must posses the same stamina and will to succeed, not to mention sheer enjoyment of the game. This volume of deliveries can only be conducted by a spinner, such is the strain on the body of the paceman’s art.
By way of comparison Warne sent down 40705 deliveries for 708 wickets, Kumble 40850 for 619. The nearest pace bowlers have sent down over 10000 fewer deliveries – Glenn McGrath 29248 for 563 wickets, Ambrose 30019 for 519 and Kapil Dev 27740 for 434.
Harbhajan Singh has already sent down 23594 deliveries for his 355 wickets. That he has already bowled over half of Murali’s total career deliveries suggests that he won’t feature in the final reckoning, although he could (and should) claim over 500 Test scalps.
For now, at least, we will have to live with the memory of Muralitharan and his unconventional off-spin. Unless an indestructible fast bowler is lurking out there somewhere, ready to embark on a 15 year Test career, or there is another Murali hidden in a youth development system out there, it will be a long wait before he is dethroned as cricket’s greatest wicket-taker.
Thank you and goodbye Murali, we salute you!
By Miles Reucroft
It is worth pointing out that Muralitharan took 795 of his Test wickets for Sri Lanka. The other five came in a one-off Test for an ICC World XI against Australia. That this fixture contributes to the career totals of those involved enabled Murali to reach 800. But for those we may never have seen the 800 wicket landmark reached…
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http://www.thecricketblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Muttiah-Muralitharan-001.jpg (http://www.thecricketblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Muttiah-Muralitharan-001.jpg)Muttiah Muralitharan has bowed out from Test cricket with 800 wickets
We are unlikely to witness such wicket-taking exploits ever again. 800 – a truly remarkable figure. The game has changed markedly this millennium with the advent of Twenty20 cricket and the increasingly infrequent staging of Test matches. These factors, combined with increasingly batsman-friendly tracks bode well for the safe-guarding of Muralitharan’s record.
That said there was a time when 500 Test wickets from one man seemed an impossible dream. Then along came Courtney Walsh. So 600 seemed impossible. Then along came Anil Kumble, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan to mark an extraordinary period of spin bowling.
Warne called time on his own splendid career having become the first man to reach the 700 landmark. His retirement from the upper echelons of the game paved the wicket-laden way for Murali to weave his way to the next – 800.
That he did cannot be overstated as an achievement. Even those of the persuasion that he is no more than a ‘chucker’ cannot help but be mightily impressed by the imprint that he has left on the game. Can anyone ever topple his record?
When casting your eye down the list of leading wicket-takers ever to have graced the game you have to scroll down to number 18 on the list to find the leader of the current batch of Test playing cricketers – Harbhajan Singh on 355. This assumes that Makhaya Ntini’s Test career is over.
Of the current field there appears to be no obvious candidate. Murali has hinted that Harbhajan Singh could overtake him but this is plainly false flattery – Singh is already 30 years old and doesn’t appear to posses the temperament or stamina to topple 800 wickets.
During his Test career Murali delivered some 44039 deliveries in order to claim his 800 wickets. Any pretender to his throne must posses the same stamina and will to succeed, not to mention sheer enjoyment of the game. This volume of deliveries can only be conducted by a spinner, such is the strain on the body of the paceman’s art.
By way of comparison Warne sent down 40705 deliveries for 708 wickets, Kumble 40850 for 619. The nearest pace bowlers have sent down over 10000 fewer deliveries – Glenn McGrath 29248 for 563 wickets, Ambrose 30019 for 519 and Kapil Dev 27740 for 434.
Harbhajan Singh has already sent down 23594 deliveries for his 355 wickets. That he has already bowled over half of Murali’s total career deliveries suggests that he won’t feature in the final reckoning, although he could (and should) claim over 500 Test scalps.
For now, at least, we will have to live with the memory of Muralitharan and his unconventional off-spin. Unless an indestructible fast bowler is lurking out there somewhere, ready to embark on a 15 year Test career, or there is another Murali hidden in a youth development system out there, it will be a long wait before he is dethroned as cricket’s greatest wicket-taker.
Thank you and goodbye Murali, we salute you!
By Miles Reucroft
It is worth pointing out that Muralitharan took 795 of his Test wickets for Sri Lanka. The other five came in a one-off Test for an ICC World XI against Australia. That this fixture contributes to the career totals of those involved enabled Murali to reach 800. But for those we may never have seen the 800 wicket landmark reached…
http://www.thecricketblog.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/feed-statistics.php?view=1&post_id=1431
More... (http://www.thecricketblog.co.uk/will-cricket-ever-see-another-muralitharan/)