The great race hots up

The Sri Lankans has had an advantage playing on home pitches which have always helped the spinners. He has captured 406 wickets at home, playing in 58 tests. Warne, on the other side of the coin, has grabbed 296 wickets in 64 games on home soil. There are comparisons that can be made, arguments that will go on without a verdict on these two magnificent bowlers.

A recent newspaper article quoted Shane Warne saying that he expected Muttiah Muralitharan to end-up close to capturing 1000 test match wickets. This statement come from a book titled, Shane Warne: My illustriousCareer, to be published this month. Warne feels so because he states that Murali bowls so many overs that he is bound to pick-up a fair share of scalps in every innings.

The statistic is that Warne has played in 140 test matches and delievered 39,257 balls. Muralitharan in the 107 matches he has played has bowled 35,656 balls. The average works out to be 280 balls (48.4 overs) for Warne per test and 334 balls (55.4 overs) for Muralitharan. The Sri Lankan does average more balls/over per game, but that is not the yardstick to measure his success rate. In short, there are numerous reasons and facts that relates to the success stories of both players.

At present the focus is on the one day game with the ICC Champions Trophy round the corner. Test cricket will resume for a couple of months and then it will be back to the shorter version of the game as all participating teams will prepare for the World Cup.

The Murali-Warne race will resume with the Ashes series in Australia where the Australian leg spinner has five tests against a currently somewhat disjointed English outfit. He must be licking his fingers! Muralitharan has a lesser opportunity to add to his tally, as he has only two tests to play against New Zealand in New Zealand.

The two players are fitted into teams of vastly different strengths and the opportunities they get at rolling out opponents are also much contrasting. A most interesting statistic is that Warne’s dismissal comprise of 54.01% of 1-6 batsmen and Muralitharan has dismissed 55.97% of similar top order batsmen. This also means that Warne has 1.96% more number 7-11 in his collection of wickets.

Both are bowlers who revel while being in action. From the earlier mentioned statistic it is evident that Murali does get more deliveries at the batsmen than Warne. The Aussies also have had good bowlers operating throughout his career. The likes of McDermott, Merv Hughes, Reifell, Damian Fleming, McGrath, Gillespie, Kasporvich, Tim May, McGill and a few others, have occupied the other end. All capable, test match wicket taking bowlers. This has meant competition by his own team mates to dismiss the opposition.

Muralitharan has had less to contend with in that respect. Chaminda Vaas has been the other main strike bowler for Sri Lanka with support from a host of others, but it has been nothing like the strike bowlers that Australia has produced.

The Sri Lankans has had an advantage playing on home pitches which have always helped the spinners. He has captured 406 wickets at home, playing in 58 tests. Warne, on the other side of the coin, has grabbed 296 wickets in 64 games on home soil. There are comparisons that can be made, arguments that will go on without a verdict on these two magnificent bowlers.

The game and its followers have been fortunate that these two spinners who deliver with fury in their wrists came around the same era. All good things must come to an end and so it will with the careers of Murali and Warne. They are on the final lap, Warne – 685, Muralitharan – 657. What a marathon it has been as both players near the 700 wicket mark. The race intensifies!