Last ball, 800th victim… A great record of bowling made 17 years ago, which is impossible to remake.

New Delhi. The sun was shining with all its might at the Galle International Stadium, but every eye present on the field was focused on Sri Lanka’s spin magician Muttiah Muralitharan. This was not only the last Test match of his career, but he was faced with a challenge that no bowler had ever seen in the history of cricket. Before the start of the match, Muralitharan needed eight wickets to reach the pinnacle of Test cricket and touch the magical figure of 800 wickets. Murali, who made batsmen from all over the world dance to his fingertips for almost 18 years with his brilliant spin, amazing variety and magical control, wrote this farewell match like an exciting script.

Sri Lanka had scored a huge score against India in this test match, due to which Muttiah Muralitharan got free rein to attack. In the first innings itself, he used his spin magic and took 5 wickets and broke the back of Indian batting. Murali’s havoc continued in the second innings also. He showed the way to the pavilion to aggressive Indian batsmen like Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh. The excitement of the match was at its peak. Sri Lanka was on the verge of victory, but the heartbeats of the fans around the world were stuck on whether Murali would be able to get his 800th wicket or would the match end already?

Then came that historic moment. India’s last pair was at the crease. The last ball of Muralitharan’s Test career… The ball turned, hit the outside edge of Indian batsman Pragyan Ojha and his old partner Mahela Jayawardene, posted in the slips, took a safe catch. With this catch, not only did India’s innings end, but Muralitharan also took the 800th Test wicket in history on the last ball of his career.

1 to 800 wickets milestone
This position of Muraleedharan was not achieved overnight. There were many memorable milestones in his long career of 17 years and 328 days. His record breaking journey started on 28 August 1992 by dismissing Australia’s Craig McDermott. After this, such a fall of wickets started that no batsman in the world was safe from his spin. He registered his 100th wicket by dismissing New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming and reached his 200th wicket by dismissing England’s Jim Troughton. South Africa’s Shaun Pollock became his 300th victim, while he completed his 400 wickets by dismissing Zimbabwe’s Henry Olonga.

Muraleedharan did not stop here. He took the 500th wicket of his career by dismissing Australia’s Michael Kasprowicz. After this, by sending Bangladesh’s Khalid Masood and Syed Russell to the pavilion, they reached the milestone of 600th and 700th wicket respectively. He became the only bowler in the world to complete 350, 400, 450, 500, 600 and 700 wickets at the fastest time in Test history.

monopoly against every country
Muralitharan’s greatness lies in the fact that he proved his mettle against every Test team in the world. There was no country in the cricket world which he did not entangle in his web of spin. He took the maximum of 130 wickets against Pakistan, while showing the way to the pavilion to England’s batsmen 112 times. By taking 105 wickets against India and 104 wickets against South Africa, he proved that he was the biggest threat to any team. Apart from this, 100 wickets against Zimbabwe, 89 against Bangladesh, 59 against Australia, 57 against West Indies and 44 against New Zealand testify to his great dominance.

Incredible statistics and great juggling
In the 133 Test matches played in his career, Muralitharan took 800 wickets with an excellent bowling average of 22.72. He has an all-time record of taking 5 wickets in an innings 67 times and 10 wickets in a match 22 times, which seems almost impossible for any future bowler to break. His captain and friend Mahela Jayawardene also played an important role in this incredible journey. The most successful pair of ‘ball and fielder’ in Test history was that of Murali and Jayawardene, where Jayawardene took a total of 77 catches off Murali’s balls, which also included the 800th final wicket of his career. That catch of Pragyan Ojha on the Galle ground was not just a wicket, but it was a golden chapter in the book of cricket which made Muttiah Muralitharan the greatest bowler of spin bowling forever.