Sri Lankan offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan surpassed 400 wickets in one-day internationals as an unbeaten century by Boeta Dippenaar lifted South Africa to 263 for five in the first innings of a tri-series cricket match on Tuesday.
Muralitharan took two wickets within two balls in his opening over to pass 400 wickets in his 263rd limited-overs match, setting that mark alongside his 584 wickets in Tests.
He became only the third player after the Pakistan pace duo of Wasim Akram (502) and Waqar Younis (416), to reach 400 wickets in limited-overs games on the ground on which he was called for throwing by umpire Ross Emerson in 1999.
Dippenaar, who made 125 not out, carried his bat through a 50-overs innings for the second time in his one-day career, becoming the second South African after Gary Kirsten to do so on more than one occasion.
His innings and Herschelle Gibb’s 68 allowed South Africa to reach a competitive total after Sri Lanka shackled their scoring in the early part of their innings.
South Africa went 23 overs, between the 13th and 36th overs, without hitting a boundary, but Dippenaar’s steady accumulation and Gibbs’s sprightly innings of 65 balls lifted their run rate.
South African captain Graeme Smith won the toss and attempted to grind his way out of a protracted batting slump. He faced 50 balls in scoring 28 runs, but gave Muralitharan his 399th victim when he was stumped by Kumar Sangakkara in the 19th over.
Muralitharan dismissed pinch hitter Johan van der Wath for no score two balls later to reach a new career milestone on a ground that holds unpleasant memories of the controversy of 1999 when he clashed with Emerson over a no-ball call.
During a tri-series match against England at Adelaide in January 1999, Emerson, umpiring at square leg, called Muralitharan for throwing, prompting a South African match referee to refer his bowling action to the International Cricket Council.
Muralitharan made early inroads into the South African innings before Dippenaar and Gibbs hit them out of trouble.
Dippenaar took 130 balls to reach a century that included only three boundaries. He went on to bat throughout the 50 overs and provide the backbone of his team’s competitive total.
Gibbs, with a more direct approach, broke the Sri Lankan stranglehold on the innings, hitting four fours and three sixes in an assertive half-century. — Sapa-AP