Sri Lankan genius Muralidaran more dangerous than Warne -Mark Waugh
Dangerous: Muthiah Muralidaran. The mere mention of his name
still sends chills down my spine. While Wasim Akram and Curtly Ambrose
would bully batsmen with pace, Muralidaran's weapon is as much mental
torture as his brilliant spin bowling.
My brother, Steve, once called the Sri Lankan wizard the Don Bradman
of spin bowling. The best accolade I can offer is to say I found him
even more difficult to face than the great Shane Warne.
The Australians have the unenviable job of facing Muralidaran in
their World Cup match at Grenada tomorrow night, Melbourne time. He has
never taken a five-wicket haul against the Aussies in one-day cricket,
but they'll be playing him with great respect and trying to survive his
10 overs without losing too many wickets.
While such an approach won't threaten Muralidaran's economy rate, a
very low 3.84 an over, if the Australians can keep their wickets intact
it will allow them to take on the other members of the attack.
Many viewers will wonder why the batsmen don't dance down the wicket
and whack him for four, so I will try to give an insight into what
Australia's batsmen are contending with when they face Murali.
He is not only extremely accurate and boasts great control, but he
spins the ball consistently further than any other slow bowler.
This is in part because of his quick arm and wrist action that makes
the ball skip off the pitch quickly and doesn't give the batsmen much
time to adjust their shots. He has two balls, the orthodox off spinner
and the doosra, which spins in the opposite direction, much like a leg
spinner's wrong 'un.
It's hard for batsmen to pick which way the ball is spinning when he
bowls because there are no obvious changes in his action.
Muralidaran is a far more dangerous bowler than when I last faced him
a few years ago because the doosra is harder to pick, because he is
bowling it quicker and with a trajectory similar to the offie.
I always found batting against Muralidaran a great challenge. As he
prepared to unleash a delivery I'd look at his wrist to see what he was
going to bowl. When he'd bowl his doosra, Murali's wrist would come over
the top a fraction more.
The advantage for limited-overs batsmen is they have to focus for
only a few overs, but any slip in concentration can be fatal.
Courtesy Age |