Throwback Thursday | Muttiah Muralitharan signs off from Test cricket by scripting history
Welcome to the series where we present you a moment, a game in history that has shaped the way the sport has been played, in our weekly segment ‘Throwback Thursday.' This week, we look at the historic Galle Test between India and Sri Lanka in 2010, where Murali clinched his 800th Test wicket.
The date is July 22, 2010 and we are at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle, Sri Lanka, where the sport of cricket is potentially one ball away from witnessing a moment in the sport that might never be eclipsed - not in the near future; not in a thousand years. 35,000 fans inside the stadium, who had all made their way to the ground almost two hours before the first ball of the day was bowled in the anticipation of seeing their greatest sporting icon script history, are belting songs about their hero Muttiah Muralitharan from the bottom of their hearts, in sync with the drums and trumpets that have turned the Test into a party; a celebration of the highest order. With India’s last batsman Pragyan Ojha batting on 13, every Tom, Dick and Harry across the world has his eyes firmly fixed on the television, knowing that three balls are all Muralitharan, who is currently on 799 Test wickets, might potentially have to conquer Mt.800, a feat that had never been achieved before in the annals of history.
But before we get to the historic moment, it is important to go back in time and understand how this magician from Kandy, who started off as a normal, innocent off-spinner, established himself as the greatest bowler of all-time, to the extent that he was one wicket away from reaching a milestone that was considered humanly impossible by 99.9999% of all cricketers who had played the sport.
When a 20-year-old Muttiah Muralitharan made his international debut for Sri Lanka in 1992, it took him all of one ball to catch the eyes of people. And no, it wasn’t because he bowled a magic delivery upfront, nor was it because he’d been a child prodigy who the world had known of; Murali became an instant, unique entity in the sport through his bizarre, unorthodox action, which saw him bowl off-spin with his wrist whilst he almost did an ‘L shape’ with his run-up prior to delivering the ball. Never before in world cricket was there an off-spinner who had such a distinctive release, let alone a run-up which saw him almost start from the cover region before delivering the ball.
But for the first quarter of his career, though, this weird action of his helped Murali reap no rewards. At least in Tests, he’d given no standout performances in the first six years of his career and after 34 Tests, 135 wickets was all he had next to his name, with those scalps coming at a very okayish average of 31.15 and a questionable strike rate of 72.1. But the catch to this was that despite not quite setting the world on fire, he was, by far, Sri Lanka’s best and most prolific bowler and by 1995, he’d already become the country’s highest wicket-taker, surpassing Rumesh Ratnayake's tally of 73 wickets. Murali’s talent and ability was evident; it just felt like he needed a watershed moment that would turn his career around.
And ‘that’ moment arrived on Boxing Day in 1995 - albeit in the most unexpected and controversial way. In front of a crowd of 55,239, on-field umpire Darrell Hair called Muralitharan for alleged chucking; Hair no-balled Murali seven times in three overs for allegedly bending his arm and straightening it in the process of delivery. The incident outraged the touring Lankan team and it became the biggest talking point in world cricket at that point in time. The incident would not turn out to be a one-off and it would, in fact, turn out to be the first of many controversies surrounding Murali and his action. But through a series of biomechanical tests, it was proved that Murali’s action was squeaky clean and it was a “congenital defect in Muralitharan's arm which makes him incapable of fully straightening the arm but gives the appearance of fully straightening it.”
So what was it about the 1995 Boxing Day Test - where he was first called for chucking - which helped Murali turn his career around? That’s a mystery unknown to one and all, till date, but astonishingly, in the 35 Tests that followed, the off-spinner picked a staggering 221 wickets at an average of 21.98. By the end of 2000, Murali had firmly established himself as one of the best spinners in the world alongside Australia’s Shane Warne.
When talking about Murali, it is also vitally important to mention the Warne's role in his career, for it was the Australian’s outrageous ability that kept the off-spinner motivated for the vast majority of his career and brought about a rivalry between the two that is widely regarded as the greatest ever in the sport’s history. Starting from the late 90s, Warne and Murali exchanged blows, broke and shattered records back and forth to an extent that their achievements and their performances, after a certain point, started becoming absurd.
After Warne, in 1998, become the highest wicket-taking spinner of all-time, when he overtook West Indies’ Lance Gibbs, Muralitharan, in the year 2000, became the second-fastest bowler of all time to 300 Test wickets, after which he became the fastest and youngest to both 400 and 500 Test wickets. In May 2004, Muralitharan overtook West Indian Courtney Walsh's record of 519 Test match wickets to become the highest wicket-taker, but the record was then broken by Warne a few months later, after which the Australian also became the first bowler in history to claim 600 Test wickets.
The duo’s battle went on till the year of 2007, when Warne finally called time on his career, with 708 wickets to his name, after the 2006/07 Ashes Triumph, after which Muralitharan overtook the Australian for one last time on December 3, 2007, when he claimed England’s Paul Collingwood as his 709th scalp. Such was the duo’s rivalry that from 2007, Australia-Sri Lanka bouts came to be known as the Warne-Muralitharan trophy in order to acknowledge the efforts of the two cricketers.
Murali’s legacy, however, extended well beyond his rivalry with Warne; in the mid 2000s, the off-spinner was integral to Sri Lanka becoming one of the superpowers in world cricket. Alongside the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, and Chaminda Vaas, Muralitharan transformed the Sri Lankan Test side into a force to be reckoned with as between August 2001 and December 2010, the side boasted a win/loss ratio of 1.708, a number that was only bettered by India and Australia. This number, in the same period, catapulted to 4.285 in Tests at home and this was a record that was, again, only bettered by Australia; in fact, between August 2001 and December 2010, Sri Lanka were unbeaten in a staggering 18 of the 20 series they’d played at home and in this period, Murali took an astonishing 320 wickets in the 40 Tests he’d played in Sri Lanka, at a ridiculous average of 17.29. Put simply, facing Muralitharan on turning tracks, especially during the mid-2000s, for the batsmen, was equivalent to a pre-written death sentence.
So after establishing himself as the greatest match-winner in the history of the sport by mid-2000s, and after surpassing Warne’s record of 708 Test wickets by December 2007, thereby becoming the most successful bowler in the game’s history, Muralitharan set his sights on the coveted 800-wicket mark. 35 years old at the start of the England series that commenced in December 2007, Murali, who had 704 wickets to his name prior to the series, would go on to pick 88 wickets across his next 17 Tests, meaning by the end of 2009, he had 792 scalps to his name, just eight short of the 800-wicket mark that the whole world was pushing him to conquer.
To both his and Sri Lanka’s dismay, however, the country was not scheduled to play a single Test match between December 2009 and July 2010, meaning Murali was left stranded on 792 Test wickets for no less than seven months, until the series against India at home that was scheduled to commence on July 18, 2010. Given he’d no other option, Murali patiently waited and as a brand new decade kick-started in the year of 2010, expectations and anticipation grew further and further with every passing day.
However, to everyone’s utter shock, with the start date of the series within touching distance, two weeks prior to the first Test in Galle, Muralitharan announced that he’d be retiring from Test cricket post the conclusion of the first Test - irrespective of the outcome. What this effectively meant was that with him stranded on 792 Test wickets, Murali had no option but to back himself to pick 8 wickets in the first Test against India. Failure to do so would see him finish his career stranded in the 790s.
The enormity of the challenge Murali had set for himself was astronomical because India, aside from being the number one ranked Test side in the world at that point of time, had lost just 1 of their previous 16 Tests heading into the series and had beaten Sri Lanka 2-0 in December 2009 to secure the number one ranking. The team was also one of Murali’s least favourite oppositions.
India was one of the two countries against which Murali averaged over 30, overall - Australia being the other - and in the three-match series against the same nation seven months ago, he’d ended the series with an average of 65.66. Some, within the Sri Lankan management, in fact, considered Murali’s decision to announce his retirement prior to the series to be ‘reckless’ and pleaded with him to reconsider the decision, only for him to shut them down and assure them that he was, at all means, going to not only reach the landmark by the end of the Test, but also hand Sri Lanka a victory.
Cometh the day of the Test, Sri Lanka won the toss ticked the first box, which was to bat first and put a hefty total on the board to give Murali every chance to maraud the Indian batsmen for wickets. Four of the first five Indian wickets to fall not being picked by Murali created a tinge of panic amongst the Lankans, but the veteran, who was 38 years of age, picked four of the last six Indian wickets to clinch a five-wicket haul and take his tally to 797, 3 short of the magic number everyone was praying for him to get to.
Skipper Kumar Sangakkara took the bold decision to ask the Indians to follow on, but in the second innings, each of the first four Indian wickets fell to bowlers not named Muralitharan, meaning the wizard, who was stuck on 797, had to pick three of the last six wickets to get to 800. Scalps number 798 and 799 came in the form of Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh but with India 8/314, a VVS Laxman run-out meant that one wicket was all that was remaining, meaning Murali’s dream was in serious jeopardy.
The good thing, however, was that the wicket fell in the second ball of his over, and he still had four cracks at India’s number eleven Pragyan Ojha, but Murali squandered all four balls, meaning Lasith Malinga, from the other end, had to do a Javagal Srinath. Incredibly, Murali went seven more overs without picking a single wicket and as much as pressure was mounting on his shoulders, it was also, to an incogitable level, escalating on the bowlers from the other end - Herath, Dilshan, Welegedara and Malinga all got their turns - who simply did not want to be ‘that’ person who denied the great Muttiah Muralitharan his sweet 800.
Murali went 44 balls after the run-out of Laxman without picking a single wicket, despite the batsmen in the middle being Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha, two tail-enders who hardly knew how to hold a cricket bat, but after seven-and-a-half overs of hustle, bustle and toil, he was hoping for the reward to finally come his way on ball number 45 of his post-Laxman-spell; the 44,039th of his Test career.
So, that brings us to the moment. With his body on the verge of breaking down and giving up, Murali, with that wicked smile of his, takes his mark - which, he hopes, is for the last time in his Test career - runs in and gives the ball the trademark flick with his wrist to Pragyan Ojha, who has fended off 49 balls thus far in the innings with relative ease. Murali puts in 18 years of culminated effort into the delivery, in the hope that this would be his last ever with the red ball, and cheering him on standing at first slip is his best mate Mahela Jayawardene, whose only wish, at this moment, is for the ball to take the outside edge of the batsman and fall straight into his hands.
As the Lankan fans, both in the stadium and across the world, who have already lost their voice, are trying desperately to save up one final roar for their icon if and when he gets to that magic figure, journalists are, by now, perennially frustrated, for over an hour now, they’ve been curbing themselves from hitting ‘enter’ and printing the special headline. Regardless of what happens on this next delivery, Muralitharan’s legacy will live on for centuries to come, but it was only fair that the glorious career of his got the closure it deserved, in the form of him bidding goodbye by attaining a feat that no cricketer in the sport’s 133-year history had dreamt of. This is it.
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