Sri Lanka It's Happening

March 24, 2004

No one would argue that Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan are two of the best bowlers ever. This current series in Sri Lanka was billed as the showdown between these great spinners. So how do they stand?

Well they have both taken twenty wickets in two matches - something that very few bowlers in the history of the game have been capable of achieving that would mean theres little to separate the two but Shane Warne's supporters will argue that Murali is bowling at home so some points should be deducted from muralitharan.

A more telling argument will be that most of the wickets that shane warne took happened to be vital breakthroughs while for sri lankan the partnership breaker was usually chaminda vass. The off spinners supports will counter that by saying that the australian captain is one of the best around while the Sri Lankan counter-part is an imbecile. The logic of this argument is that Ricky Ponting knew how to set the right fields and when to bowl shane warne to get wickets quickly. (The word quick does not occur in Hashan Thilakaratne's vocabulary)

Another argument will be that shane warne was bowling against a weak opposition, while murali was bowling against some of the best batsmen the world has seen in recent decades. Finally others will point out that shane warne always had a good partner at the other end to keep up the pressure while Murali only has Chaminda Vass to call for help.

So all in all it may seem that Murali might be a better bowler.

Posted by raditha at March 24, 2004 4:26 PM