Muttiah Muralitharan reaches 800 Test wickets

[sahyder1]

Remarkable achievement. He got to the magic number by taking the 10th and final Indian wicket in a convincing win in the last test match of his career. I'm old enough to have seen Walsh play and remember when he got to 500 but now we're talking about 800. Muralitharan played 12 less tests than Warne and ended up with 92 more wickets. Played 1 more test than Kumble and ended up with 181 more wickets. He'll still be playing ODIs through the World Cup next year.

Test Wickets Leaders.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

4000 more balls than Warne though. Holding nothing against him because it's an astonishing achievement, but he had plenty of opportunity to bowl - Sri Lanka basically used him to hold down one half of the overs for years!

[sahyder1]

4000 more balls than Warne though. Holding nothing against him because it's an astonishing achievement, but he had plenty of opportunity to bowl - Sri Lanka basically used him to hold down one half of the overs for years!

Fair enough but you can also argue that being more wear and tear on the body. Blowing long spells is no fun.....even for a spinner. I do rank him ahead of Warne.

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

Not to take anything away from this amazing achievement. But Murali took 160 odd wickets against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe put together, whilst Warne only took 11 against them. Well done to the chap though, one of the nicest guys in cricket.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I rate Warne as the best spin bowler ever but Murali truly was an excellent, top top bowler in cricket history.

[Mongrel]

I find it pretty much impossible to split the two. I'd rank Murali as a better bowler but Warne as a better cricketer if that makes sense. I just think the weight of Murali's achievements are too difficult to ignore to be able to rank Warne ahead of him. He's been consistent right throughout his career and took bundles of wickets in an attack that was essentially him and Chaminda Vaas for a decade.

Even without the wickets against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (bearing in mind the latter had some pretty good batsmen going around in the late 1990s), his record is outstanding. Great achievement from one of the best bowlers I've ever seen. Kinda disappointed he didn't finish on 799 which would have had a nice Bradman-esque feel about it.

[sahyder1]

I find it pretty much impossible to split the two. I'd rank Murali as a better bowler but Warne as a better cricketer if that makes sense. I just think the weight of Murali's achievements are too difficult to ignore to be able to rank Warne ahead of him. He's been consistent right throughout his career and took bundles of wickets in an attack that was essentially him and Chaminda Vaas for a decade.

Even without the wickets against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (bearing in mind the latter had some pretty good batsmen going around in the late 1990s), his record is outstanding. Great achievement from one of the best bowlers I've ever seen. Kinda disappointed he didn't finish on 799 which would have had a nice Bradman-esque feel about it.

He came ridiculously close to getting stuck on 799. There were run out opportunities missed. People do forget that for most of his career he had very little support from the other end.

Muralitharan took more wickets per match played vs all countries (except for Pakistan) vs Warne. Heck, some of those weren't even close.

If you take away the Bangladesh/Zimbabwe wickets from both Warre ends up with 697 vs Murali's 624 but Warne does end up playing 34 more tests. Murali's wickets/match radio is still almost a whole wicket better (5.78 to 4.87). It's a big enough sample that if Murali carried that same average (this is without the Bangladesh/Zimbabwe numbers) that he would have been on pace for 826 wickets if he played 143 tests like Warne and none of them were against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

Yes, that is assuming he maintained the same averages but I don't see why he wouldn't have especially considering his track record vs every other test playing nation (not named Pakistan) was better than Warne's.

Two world class talents but I'll stick with Murali at 1.

[METALMAN]

It's also worth noting that Shane Warne never had to face Australia.

[Gazz]

It's also worth noting that Shane Warne never had to face Australia.

Sri Lanka are hardly useless with the bat though.

I'd still rate Murali as the best though, the numbers prove it.

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

Actually tlmn's point is a very good one. Murali did bowl at one of the best batting lineups in cricket. Sri Lanka may have had a couple of good batters but nothing of the quality of that Aussie side. I guess that cancels out the mass of wickets against the 'minnows'. He got over 110 wickets against England too so i'm glad he's gone!!

Hopefully England have a bowler of that quality come through soon.

[hugobomb]

Like Mongrel said above me, I'd put Muralitharan as the better bowler but put Warne as the better cricketer, Warne was far better with the bat as he could forge a good late partnership at the end of an innings to frustrate the other attack, it's a great shame that Warne never got a test hundred and to have a high score of 99 is even more galling.

[sahyder1]

Like Mongrel said above me, I'd put Muralitharan as the better bowler but put Warne as the better cricketer, Warne was far better with the bat as he could forge a good late partnership at the end of an innings to frustrate the other attack, it's a great shame that Warne never got a test hundred and to have a high score of 99 is even more galling.

I'll definitely give you that point. Warne was a solid fielder. Hats off to Warne though because he was really gracious during the Pakistan/Australia broadcast today when asked to comment on Muralitharan.

[hugobomb]

Like Mongrel said above me, I'd put Muralitharan as the better bowler but put Warne as the better cricketer, Warne was far better with the bat as he could forge a good late partnership at the end of an innings to frustrate the other attack, it's a great shame that Warne never got a test hundred and to have a high score of 99 is even more galling.

I'll definitely give you that point. Warne was a solid fielder. Hats off to Warne though because he was really gracious during the Pakistan/Australia broadcast today when asked to comment on Muralitharan.

While Warne as the more somplete player, any side in history would take Muralitharan in a heartbeat. Look at England and Monty Panasar, he can't bat (barring an immense partnership with World Record breaking Jimmy Anderson during the last Ashes), can't field but we stick with him because he can bowl.

[gunnar hendershow]

Murali is the best, I can't find a reason to dispute it. The numbers don't lie, Cricket is one of the few sports where that is the case. I think in the end, Warne was the better cricketer though, as has been mentioned in this thread. As someone who is only recently getting into Cricket my body of research is pretty slim, having never watched Warne and only seen the end of Murali's test career.

[YI]

"Shane, why are you so fat?"

"...because everytime I have sex with your wife, she gives me a biscuit..."

...yeah Shane Warne all the fucking way, fuck stats.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

it's a great shame that Warne never got a test hundred and to have a high score of 99 is even more galling.

Especially when Vettori's front foot was actually over the line when he was caught out.

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

"Shane, why are you so fat?""...because everytime I have sex with your wife, she gives me a biscuit..."

...yeah Shane Warne all the fucking way, fuck stats.

Yeah i'm almost 100% certain that wasn't Shane Warne who said that. I'm thinking it was Zimbabwean Eddo Brandes.

But yeah, Warne still is awesome.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

The way that ball fizzes to the right with the sheer rotations on the ball and then spins straight past the bat. That ball to Gatting is amazing. What a bowler.

[METALMAN]

"Shane, why are you so fat?"

"...because everytime I have sex with your wife, she gives me a biscuit..."

...yeah Shane Warne all the fucking way, fuck stats.

Shane Warne didn't even say that. It was Eddo Brandes.