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Muralitharan joins 400 club
Muralitharan of Sri Lanka walks back to the pavilion
after capturing 400 Test wickets during the fourth day of the third and final Test against Zimbabwe at Galle on Tuesday.
He became the seventh bowler to achieve this feat.
GALLE, JAN. 15. Sri Lanka's ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan on Tuesday became the youngest and the quickest bowler in cricket Test history to claim 400 wickets when he bowled Zimbabwe's Henry Olonga. He also joined 400-wicket takers club
Nursing a swollen bowling finger, Muralitharan jumped in joy and later embraced his teammates when his delivery found the gap and dislodged the bail, as Olonga looked on.
``You have to play with pain sometimes,'' Muralitharan said before the start of the third and final Test against Zimbabwe that gave him the feat. As soon as he bowled Olonga, fire crackers went up in the stadium in this southern port town. Congratulatory kites were also flown. Across Sri Lanka, tens of thousands of TV viewers watched his feat.
Muralitharan, 29, claimed his 400th Test wicket in the third delivery of his 4,010th over that he has bowled, in the
72 Tests he has played.``It is definitely a landmark that I want to pass as I really want to take 500 Test wickets. Being just 29, I have plenty of time to take them,'' Muralitharan said.
Muralitharan also became the seventh bowler in Test history to achieve the landmark. Muralitharan is well within the reach of beating West Indian Courtney Walsh's world record of 519 Test wickets. New Zealand fast bowler Sir Richard Hadlee, the first bowler to take 400 wickets in Test cricket, had played 80 Tests to reach that target. It remained the quickest until today when Muralitharan broke it.
Australian legspinner Shane Warne, a contemporary of Muralitharan for the best spinner in the world, was the youngest to cross the 400-wicket mark. He was 31 when he achieved it against England at the Oval in August. However, Warne, the only spinner in a fast bowler dominated Australian team, took 92 Tests to cross the mark.
The other bowlers in the 400-club are India's Kapil Dev who was 33 years old and took 115 Tests to pass the 400- wicket mark. West Indians Courtney Walsh, age 36, 107 Tests and Curtly Ambrose, age 36, 97 Tests, and Pakistan's Wasim Akram, age 34, 96 Tests.
Muralitharan couldn't have asked for a better venue than at Galle, where he has spun Sri Lanka five wins out of the seven Tests played there. - AP
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