Old fox Murali shows his range

Published>Thu, Jul 22 10 10:37 AM

Legend has it that One of the most enduring moments of a younger Muttiah Muralitharan on the cricket field is the big off-break which pitched outside Australia left-hander Justin Langer's leg-stump and turned sharply around his legs to hit off-stump. This was in Colombo in 1990, when the touring Australia academy team was playing a Sri Lanka Board President's XI. The match wasn't broadcast on television, but those who did witness it live say it was as big a turner as Shane Warne's 'ball of the century' to Mike Gatting.

The big off-break that made him a schoolboy prodigy seemed to have eluded him for a while - age was surely catching up - nor was it making an impression in this Test, until Wednesday. Over the past two years this delivery wasn't yielding the kind of dividends Muralitharan expected. Pundits reckoned it was excessive Twenty20 cricket and the overuse of the doosra that led to the slow demise of the looping and dipping big off-break.

Over the course of the Galle Test too, Murali's brilliance of deceiving the batsman into his web of deceit was put on display, but not his ripping off-break. VVS Laxman was foxed by the one that turned the other way on Tuesday evening. He shouldered arms to the first doosra, while the second beat him all ends up. Sachin Tendulkar was undone by a mild turner, while attempting a paddle sweep.

On Wednesday too, Murali didn't give any signs of pulling his weapon from the depths of the backburner. His first ball of the day was a poor one. Mahendra Singh Dhoni got on to the backfoot and carted it towards the mid-wicket boundary. The fifth ball of the same over was treated with disdain by the Indian skipper, who by now was building a useful 74-run partnership along with Yuvraj Singh for the sixth wicket.

Dhoni and Yuvraj were taking India closer to avoiding the follow-on and possibly saving the game.

That's when Murali struck.

The big off-break

The ball pitched outside the off-stump, Dhoni went forward, but so big was the turn that he misread everything. The spin, drift and turn were deceptive. Dhoni was watchful; still his lunge towards the pitch of the ball was defeated by the spin. His bat hung out and he looked ungainly as the ball crashed into the stumps. After sending down ordinary deliveries to Dhoni, Muralitharan had just produced a peach of a ball - the big turner that was first sighted by the locals here.

To the right-handers Muralitharan's ability to get to ball to turn in from outside the off stump was always a threat. It was this very delivery that spun a yard, which foxed and also impressed senior players like Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda De Silva when they played Muralitharan in the nets during the early days. The doosra enhanced his repertoire and the straighter one became a handy variation.

But once the ball from the local folklores was out of the way, Murali was quick to shrug off the nostalgia and get back into the wily bowler mould, with his twin dismissals of Yuvraj Singh.

Yuvraj chose to go after Rangana Herath in the first innings. Twenty one of his 55 runs were made against Herath and that too at a shade over a run a ball. Against Muralitharan he was careful. He picked the doosra in the second last ball of the 57 th over. The wily off-spinner then changed his line and came around the wicket. The next delivery forced Yuvraj to defend on the front foot, but a thick edge flew to Mahela Jayawardene at first slip.

The two wickets - Dhoni and Yuvraj - were key to Sri Lanka forcing India to follow-on. Pragyan Ojha and Abhimanyu Mithun couldn't keep the off-breaks out. Muralitharan's five for 63 saw him move from 792 to 797 wickets, before snaring Yuvraj once more (a replica of the first innings) in the second innings to move a step closer.

In his last Test, it's the off-break that has got him wickets. It's probably befitting that the doosra, his more controversial delivery, didn't grab the headlines.

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