#1 and #2 for Murali

Murali has just snapped up yet another 10 wicket haul (for the match, as opposed to the innings, which he nearly did last month) when he dismissed Dale Steyn in South Africa's second innings at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo.

This is his 17th such performance, and his third consecutive 10-fer haul. In fact, there's no other bowler who's taken 10 wickets in more consecutive games, because Murali leads that way with 4 consecutive tests of 10-fers.

South Africa are all set to lose by an innings and nearly 150 runs. In fact, South Africa just about got past Jayawardene's individual score. They still need nearly 70 runs to ensure that the sum total of their two innings exceeds what Jayawardene and Sangakkara made between themselves.

In fact Mahela Jayawardene's triple will provide the rare instance of a score of that order happening in a game with a result. Look at the top scores in tests. Lara's 400 and 375 were in drawn games. Gayle's 317 was in a really boring draw.

Sobers' 365, Hutton's 364, Sehwag's 309, Gooch's 333, Inzamam's 329 and Edrich's 310 have been the only ones where their effort has helped their side win. Hayden's 380 was against Zimbabwe, so it obviously doesn't count. Hanif's 334 is obviously a special case, given Pakistan were following on, 470 runs in arrears.

Labels: murali