Murali edges closer to 700 as Bangladesh collapse again

July 12, 2007

Lunch Bangladesh 131 (Muralitharan 6-28) v Sri Lanka

Muralitharan celebrates yet another wicket on his way to figures of 6 for 28© AFP

The rain finally abated at Kandy, and Sujeewa de Silva and Muttiah Muralitharan combined under cloudy skies to bowl Bangladesh out for 131 on the second day of this dead-rubber Test. de Silva, in his first Test for five summers, gave Sri Lanka vital breakthroughs quickly and Muralitharan skittled out the tail to record his 59th five-wicket haul in Test cricket. It was a good day for the local crowd, as their hometown hero crossed 100 wickets at the venue.

Play began half an hour late under overcast conditions, and de Silva and Lasith Malinga didn't give the overnight batsman any room to work with. While Malinga bustled in and mixed the full with the short - Mohammad Ashraful took a lifter on the glove, Tushar Imran on the helmet - de Silva was as accurate as he was on the first day, consistently pitching the ball in that channel outside off stump and making the batsmen play. Two wickets were his reward.

He showed the importance of a tight line, and how a hint of swing could be enough on such pitches. He simply stuck to an outside-the-off-stump line, and was his consistency fetched him the wicket of Tushar early. Having hit a brace of confident boundaries against de Silva, Tushar impetuously chased a wide delivery and edged to Mahela Jayawardene at second slip.

de Silva then grabbed the biggest wicket, that of the Bangladesh captain, in the same manner. Ashraful, committed to going onto the front foot, drove at a full delivery that was moving away and edged to the 'keeper for 26. With the two main batsmen gone, Jayawardene turned to his ace bowler.

As expected, Muralitharan's introduction in front of his home crowd created a buzz. Clearly rankled by a confident shout against Ashraful in his first over - the batsman flashed a cut at a tossed up delivery, there was a noise, but replays didn't show any visible deviation off the bat - Muralitharan fizzed one up to Mashrafe Mortaza and dived full stretch to his left to plucked a one-handed return catch.

A second but much easier one came his way soon after, as Mohammad Rafique slogged one up in the air, and Murali's fifth wicket arrived four deliveries later when Shahadat Hossain prodded an inside edge to forward short leg. Syed Rasel tried to defend one tossed up from around the stumps and offered silly point an easy catch. The innings had folded for 131.

And while his batsmen prepared to pile on another huge total, Muralitharan could sit back and start thinking about that magical figure of 700 wickets - he now has 694.