Bayliss pays tribute to Malinga and Murali

Chris DHAMBARAGE reporting from Galle

Sri Lanka coach Trevor Bayliss paid tribute to his pace spin combination of Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan who brought them closer towards a historic victory with their outstanding performances on the fourth day of the opening Test match against India at the Galle International Stadium yesterday.

Malinga came into bowl at a most difficult stage of the innings and produced a hostile spell of reverse swinging yorkers and well directed bouncers to have India struggling at 181 for 5 in their second innings.

And to top things off for Sri Lanka veteran off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan finished the day by capturing Yuvraj Singh’s wicket to move within two wickets from reaching the magical 800 wicket mark.

Bayliss stated that Muralitharan deserves the two wickets to finish off his career on a high note and hoped that all the players would provide the needed encouragement and the support to achieve his goal.

The Sri Lankan coach said that winning the match is of course their prime goal and hoped that Muralitharan will claim the needed two wickets out of the five when India resume their second innings with Laxman and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Meanwhile Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag believes that they could still save the test match with two of their top batsmen at the crease. Sehwag noted that the same pair performed a similar role in a test match against South Africa and expected a repeat performance.

Sehwag also stated that Muttiah Muralitharan is still the most difficult bowler he has faced and his retirement will be a great relief for the batsmen. The Indian opening batsman further said that the wicket is still good for batting and hope that the tailenders will bat with a more purpose.