Galle, Sri Lanka – Muttiah Muralitharan’s test career came to an end on Thursday in classy style when he took his 800th test wicket. The match ended with Sri Lanka winning by ten wickets, and was a fitting end to an exceptional playing career.
“Galle is my favourite ground and this is the opportunity I was waiting for to win the match and finish it nicely,” Muralitharan said. “My knee is not that great to bowl 50-60 overs I thought. There are good young spin bowlers and you won’t miss me much.”
“For me, leading out the side without Murali is a huge loss. But it gives us an opportunity to see how really the other bowlers will be able to give us test wins. I don’t think anyone is going to take us eight-fors and nine-fors for us. They might to do it once in a while. We’ll share the wickets out, do the hard work necessary and win games for Sri Lanka by bowling the unique way.” Â Kumar Sangakkara.
Sangakkara also said that he was amazed at how Murali remained focused on winning the test, with so much talk about the record.
The 38-year-old spin master needed 8 wickets from the match to break the record, and he achieved this with his last ball. Murali will be a hard player to replace; his career statistics speak for themself.
Top 10 Test Wicket Takers
Bowler – Matches – Wickets
- M Muralitharan – 133 – 800
- S Warne – 145 – 708
- A Kumble – 132 – 619
- G McGrath – 124 – 563
- C Walsh – 132 – 519
- N Kapil Dev – 131 – 434
- R Hadlee – 86 – 431
- S Pollock – 108 – 421
- W Akram – 104 – 414
- C Ambrose – 98 – 405