Muttiah Muralitharan gets 800

You are eight wickets short of entering a territory where no other cricketer has left a footprint, you enter the last day of the last Test you will ever play needing two wickets, you take one, your partner threatens to take everything else on offer and you can do nothing but keep on bowling. And wait. The umpire doesn't give a palpable shout for lbw. You wait. VVS Laxman, who kept you at bay for so many hours, runs himself out and there is only one wicket left for you to take. You wait. Perhaps even fret. You nearly run out the last pair yourself. Twice. And after 23 wicket-less overs, perhaps self-doubt creeps in and you wonder whether it would come at all. Suddenly, the moment arrives and you are there. Where no man has gone before. The long wait only highlighted the precious toil that went into the preceding 799. What a legend.

Murali is 38 now. The wrists aren't as supple, the old fizz is certainly missing, the shoulder aches and the knees creak when he pivots. And he still produces magical deliveries and takes a five-for. Even in his last Test. Yesterday, he removed Dhoni with a magical offbreak and twice had Yuvraj Singh look a tailender. Today, he didn't have to do anything special and had to just remain patient. It's isn't easy to do so when you are so close to a special landmark. The temptation to produce something extra, something magical and something unplayable would have been there but if there was any, he didn't show it. He kept reeling in the off breaks, mixed in the occasional doosra, and varied the pace and the trajectory. And waited.

The new ball was taken. And Murali very nearly made his tryst with destiny. A ripping off break from round the stumps seemingly had Laxman in front but umpire Daryl Harper didn't budge. Perhaps, he was wary of ruling it out because of the emotions that the context threw up. Perhaps, he just thought it was missing leg stump. Post lunch there was more nail-biting drama.

Just when you feared it might never come, it came. Ojha edged a flighted off break to who else but Mahela Jayawardene. How fitting. It was the 77th time Jayawardene had taken a catch off Murali. A world record. Murali roared, his team-mates exploded, his wife and mother jumped out of their seats, the crowd cleared their throat and the fireworks exploded. All seemed well with the world.