Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan (born 17 April 1972) is a Sri Lankan cricket coach and former professional cricketer. Averaging over six wickets per Test match, Muralitharan is one of the most successful bowlers in international cricket and the first to take 800 wickets in Tests. As of October 2020 he has taken more wickets in Test matches than any other cricketer.

Muralitharan held the number one spot in the International Cricket Council's player rankings for Test bowlers for a record period of 1,711 days spanning 214 Test matches. He became the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket when he overtook the previous record-holder Shane Warne on 3 December 2007. Muralitharan had previously held the record when he surpassed Courtney Walsh's 519 wickets in 2004, but he suffered a shoulder injury later that year and was overtaken by Warne. Muralitharan took the wicket of Gautam Gambhir on February 5, 2009 in Colombo to surpass Wasim Akram's ODI record of 502 wickets. He retired from Test cricket in 2010, registering his 800th and final wicket on 22 July 2010 from his final ball in his last Test match.

Muralitharan was rated the greatest Test match bowler by Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack in 2002 and in 2017 was the first Sri Lankan cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He won the Ada Derana Sri Lankan of the Year in 2017.

Muralitharan holds the World record of being the only player taking ten wickets haul in test crcket against all test playing countries. He holds the World record of reaching fastest the mark of 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650 and 700 test wickets in terms of matches played. He holds the World record of most number of 67 times five wicket haul in Test and holds the World record of most number of 22 times ten wicket haul. He is the only bowler to take ten wickets haul in Test in four consecutive test matches. He has the credit of achieving this feat twice. He holds the World record of taking more than 100 wickets in one single ground at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo. He is only one of the six test players in the history of test cricket to have dismissed all the eleven batsmen in a test match.

Muralitharan's international career was beset by controversy over his bowling action. Due to an unusual hyperextension of his congenitally bent arm during delivery, his bowling action was called into question on a number of occasions by umpires and sections of the cricket community. After biomechanical analysis under simulated playing conditions, Muralitharan's action was cleared by the International Cricket Council, first in 1996 and again in 1999.

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