Test cricket’s third-highest wicket taker, Muttiah Muralitharan, says he is amused to see batsmen adopting ball-kicking tactics against spin bowlers.
”It’s amusing to see batsmen come to the middle to show their ball kicking ability,” Muralitharan said on Thursday, lamenting the practice of pads increasingly becoming a first line of defense for batsmen facing spinners.
”One always starts with the concept of cricket being a contest between bat and ball, but somehow the pads use as a form of defense is increasing,” said Muralitharan.
”The rules give advantage to the batsmen, they can keep kicking the ball away and still stay at the wicket,” he said.
”Such negative tactics are making it tougher for spinners to claim wickets.”
Muralitharan said the influx of technology had given the batsmen the advantage of analysing spinners by repeatedly studying videos before formulating strategies to counter them.
”It’s not becoming any easier bowling to batsmen who have worked you out,” he said.
”Ask any spinner like Shane Warne, it’s harder now … the video analyses are playing a big part.
”But videos can only help you study a spinner; they can’t help you score runs. Batsmen mostly learn to tackle spinners in a negative way.”
In recent years, many batsmen had adopted the low-risk strategy of thrusting their pads out to smother Muralitharan’s prodigious spin. Some New Zealand batsmen used the ploy during the 0-0 drawn two-test series, but Muralitharan still got 13 dismissals in the series to boost his tally to 450 wickets from 80 tests.
Only West Indian paceman Courtney Walsh (519) and Australian legspinner Warne (491) have more wickets in test cricket’s 125-year history.
Fleming led the New Zealand defiance against Muralitharan with unbeaten knocks of 274 and 69 in the first test in Colombo, but the ace offspinner said it didn’t frustrate him.
”Look at the way the New Zealand batsmen played. They managed to defend, but the approach was negative. They weren’t positive against me,” Muralitharan said.
”These tactics did not ruffle me. I knew before the tour they were preparing to block me and try scoring against other bowlers.”
Returning to Kandy’s Asgiriaya Stadium, a ground where he honed his spinning skills as a boy, Muralitharan got his 37th five-wicket haul in a test innings in the drawn second test on Wednesday, overtaking New Zealander Richard Hadlee’s achievement of doing so 36 times in 86 tests.
”It’s wonderful to get past someone as great as Richard Hadlee, but there’s a long way to go,” said Muralitharan (30) who is aiming to continue playing for another four years.
”I want to continue playing until the 2007 World Cup, and that should give me four more years of international cricket. By then I hope to reach the target of 600 wickets, that’ll be a good mark.”
Muralitharan is in the Sri Lanka lineup for the limited-overs series against New Zealand and Pakistan starting on Saturday. -Sapa-AP