Feb 10 2009
Think B4 Boasting: Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan might have gained the world record for the highest wicket taker in one day internationals in the fourth one day international against India at Colombo. But, according to me that feat is far from satisfaction as far as the caliber of someone like Muralitharan is concerned. Not only for the reason that Sri Lanka despite the presence of Muralitharan lost the series 4-0 at that stage, but for the reason that Muralitharan, like stated in one of my earlier posts waited for the record to come to him rather than grabbing the record towards him. This is just not acceptable.
And, things don’t end just there. Being the frontline bowler for Sri Lanka, Muralitharan should have been a match winner that he’s been since a decade. But, all that this match winner could manage throughout the series was just four wickets and all these five wickets at an average of 50.2 bowling 50 overs. Believe it or not-Muralithran could manage just one over maiden in the entire series. May be that Indian batsmen are good players of spin bowling. But, his 7/30 came against the very same India and for a bowler who can boast of so many stats, this fact should hardly be of prime concern.
A part time bowler like Yuvraj Singh was found picking up 4 wickets (just one less than what Murali did) in addition with his brilliance with the bat and at an average of 22.5. And Virender Sehwag could pick up 3 wickets at an average of 39.33 compared to Muralitharan’s 50.2. And Muralitharan was not the one who took Gambhir’s wicket in the fourth one dayer, but it was Gambhir who sacrificed his wicket after scoring his career best 150. That match in particular saw Muralitharan ending up with figures of 1/66 off 10 overs. Had I been the captain, I would have surely not allowed Muralitharan bowl more than 5-6 overs after going through his batsmen friendly bowling.
I still wonder as to what made the captain to go in for Murali and allow him complete his quota of 10 overs in every game. All the bowlers who took more wickets than Murali in that series bowled less than what Muralitharan did. I feel it was only to see Muralitharan get his 503rd victim and nothing else. This was perhaps in the minds of Mahela Jayawardane and this I think set the tone for Sri Lanka’s 4-1 defeat in the series. The entire series was played with an intention to celebrate Murali’s conquest and not to outplay India. I wish one learn some lessons from M S Dhoni who rested Sachin Tendulkar and tossed Ravindra Jadeja.
This post might be thought to be contradictory with the post titled “Greatest Assets Of The Sub Continent-Murali & Sachin “.That post was written taking into consideration their records and this one regarding the selfishness of the Sri Lankan team and lack of professionalism.
