Muttiah, Kumar chasing milestones

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: The third and final Test match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh which begins today at the Asgririya Stadium will be of great importance for Muttiah Muralitharan and Kumar Sangakkara.

Spin wizard Muralitharan who captured 14 wickets in the first two matches will begin the Test with just 20 scalps away from equalling retired Australian spinner Shane Warn’s World record tally of 708. Not only that Muralitharan needs only four more wickets to complete one hundred wickets at the Asgiriya Stadium.

In the 14 Test matches he has played so far at this venue he has captured 96 wickets with a fantastic average of 17.21 including five wickets in an innings on eight occasions and ten wickets in a match on four occasions. In addition he has the top three bowling analysis in an innings and the best match figures at Asgiriya Stadium which is a clear indication of his total dominance at the hill capital.

Muralitharan’s latest heroics at this venue came in April last year even though Sri Lanka were beaten by eight wickets at the hands of Pakistan.

He came closer to capturing all ten wickets in an innings when he returned amazing figures of nine wickets for 51 runs against Zimbabwe in January 2002.

In the same match he claimed a match bag of 13 wickets which is still the best bowling figures in a match at the Asgiriya Stadium. In addition Muralitharan returned figures of eight wickets for 46 against the West Indies in July 2005 and 7 for 94 against Zimbabwe in June 1998. Sangakkara is also chasing a personal milestone hoping to further consolidate his position in the International Cricket Council Test rankings.

The elegant left hander who stroked an unbeaten double century in the second Test last week is currently placed third behind Pakistan’s Mohammed Yousuf and Australian captain Ricky Ponting.

Sangakkara has accumulated 660 runs at this ground including one century and two half centuries for an average of 38.82. His best effort here was his unbeaten knock of 157 which he made against the West Indies in 2005.

He has also excelled as a wicket keeper here and has the most dismissals for a wicket keeper with a total of 30 victims including 25 catches and five stumpings.