Sri Lanka cruised to victory in the first Test against Zimbabwe on Saturday defeating the hosts by an innings and 240 runs in a match which made history as spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan set a new world record for Test wickets.
Muralitharan took the 520th Test wicket of his career when he removed Mluleki Nkala to break the mark of 519 set by West Indian paceman Courtney Walsh who set his record also against Zimbabwe.
A weakened Zimbabwean side collapsed in their second innings to 102 all out having been bowled out for 199 in their first innings in reply to the tourists massive score of 541. It was mid-afternoon on the third day when Muralitharan persuaded Nkala to give a catch to Mahela Jasyawardene at forward short leg.
Muralitharan took a second wicket with the next ball catching Alester Maregwede off his own bowling with which to begin building a lead over Australian leg spinner Shane Warne, his great rival, who stands on 517.
”I was thankful it was over,” said Muralitharan. ”I said to myself it’s gone now I can relax. Then off the next ball I got another wicket. I was so anxious that I wasn’t putting the ball in the right place. My team-mates said to put the ball in the right place and it will come. Eventually it came.”
Muralitharan, whose bowling action has caused admiration and consternation in equal measures and who had to undergo further scientific tests in Australia in the run-up to the series here, praised the help he has received from the team.
”It was wonderful to get the world record. I was a bit nervous when I was on 519 wickets because wickets were falling,” he admitted. ”I have to thank Chaminda Vaas and Marvan Atapattu for helping me get to the record. Vaas was bowling brilliantly at one end and had he continued the game would have been over. But he told the captain to stop him and give me the bowling to get to that one wicket. It was all a team game.”
Muralitharan now has the second Test against Zimbabwe, which starts in Bulawayo on Friday, to build on his new tally although Warne will get his chance to surpass the record when Australia tour here later this month.
Muralitharan left the field to an archway of bats, held aloft by Zimbabweans as well as his team-mates and the Sri Lanka officials. The match was won at a canter by Sri Lanka. It was a one-sided match as expected, mainly because Zimbabwe were forced to field a weak and inexperienced side due to the dispute between senior white players and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. Sri Lanka began the day on 456-7.
Vaas was quickly out but Farveez Maharoof, Nuwan Zoysa and Muralitharan scored 40, 28 not out and 26 respectively to send the Sri Lanka total soaring to 541,
which was always going to be well out of reach of Zimbabwe. The home side were five wickets down for 18 runs at one stage, sending the statisticians searching for the lowest Test score in history — 26 by New Zealand against England in 1954-5.
Just as in the first innings, when he toppled the home batsmen, Zoysa repeated and improved that feat and his figures yet further. He took five wickets for 20, easily his best in test cricket and his first five-wicket haul. His match figures were 9-73. Without Muralitharan’s feat, his would have been the story of the day.
Zimbabwe recovered somewhat through late order belligerence by Douglas Hondo and Tinashe Panyangara, which at least took them into double figures. Late in the day Muralitharan injured a finger when fielding but he quickly returned with it taped. He will certainly be fit for the second and last Test at Bulawayo, which starts on Friday.
But Zimbabwe should be able to put up stiffer resistance after former skipper Heath Streak and his fellow white rebels reached agreement to accept mediation of their dispute with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU). The 12 players involved have agreed that they want to end the month-long impasse since Streak was sacked after he demanded radical changes to the way the game is run in the strife-torn country. – Sapa-AFP