Muralitharan spins Sri Lanka towards victory

Mutiah Muralitharan is a man that rarely fails to exceed the enormous expectations placed upon him. For one and a half days in Galle the local supporters had talked with confidence about the devastation he would cause on such a helpful surface. Once again he did not disappoint, condemning the South Africans the ignominy of following on for only the second time since returning from isolation.

With Muralitharan taking six wickets for 87 runs today Sri Lanka bowled out South Africa for 238, still 284 runs adrift of the Sri Lanka first innings total. Forced to follow on by Sanath Jayasuriya the openers started well, putting on fifty for the first wicket, before losing Neil Mckenzie (25), and then cruelly, Gary Kirsten (55), on the penultimate ball of the day. Finishing the third day on 112 for two they now appear to heading for a certain defeat.

The last time that South Africa was forced to follow on was in the third test match against England in the winter. On that occasion the team responded emphatically, scoring 572-7 to save the game. The hero was Gary Kirsten who scored a massive 275 and batted for over 14 hours. Thus one cannot underestimate the severity of losing him so senselessly at the end of the day.

Having batted well for 147 minutes and having put on 56 runs for the first wicket with Neil McKenzie (25) and 56 for the second with Jacques Kallis (25*) he was run-out by Chaminda Vaas. Jacques Kallis pushed a delivery from Chandana into the leg-side, immediately called for two and set off quickly, Kirsten started to comeback for the second only to see that Kallis had changed his mind, and was forced to turn back.

His dismissal means that South Africa are still 172 runs behind with eight wickets remaining. The situation would though have been far worse if it had not been for a magnificent century by Darryl Cullinan (114*). Undefeated to the end may not have consistently read Muralitharan's arm ball, but he looked more at ease than any of his teammates. So much so that he seemed that there were almost two games being played simultaneously.

One was the hopelessly one-sided confrontation between a canny spin bowler, blessed with perplexing variation, and batsmen, who appeared to have neither the necessary strategy, technique and self belief needed to counter their adversary.

In Cullinan though, Muralitharan, had a much worthier opponent. Neutralising the off spinners threat by coming across his stumps and looking play the bowler to leg, he was also committed to attack and never let the spinners dominate him like they had most of his counterparts. He was though lucky to have been dropped by Marvan Attapattu when on 50*. This being his 11th test century he has now scored more centuries than any other South African.

South Africa started the day in disastrous fashion, losing Jacques Kallis (28) in just the third over of the day. Groping forward to ball outside his off stump, the ball took an inside edge on to his pad and was caught by Russel Arnold at short leg.

After a succession of boundaries by Cullinan and a typically energetic start to an innings, Jonty Rhodes (12), made the fatal mistake of going back to Muralitharan and was clean bowled through the gate.

Lance Klusner (19) started tentatively, but beaten four times by Muralitharan in one over, he knew that he would soon perish if he just tried to defend and thus adopted a bold approach. He had hit four boundaries in his short innings, including two savage straight drives off Muralitharan, when he drove Dharmasena powerfully down the ground, only to see Upul Chandana take a wonderful diving catch at mid-on.

Mark Boucher (0) was the defeated by Murali's arm ball and Shaun Pollock (4) top edged a sweep to Kumar Dharmasena at backward square leg soon after the luncheon interval to ensure that South Africa couldn't reach the follow on target.

Having taken 6 of the first 7 wickets to fall, included the rump of the top order, Muralitharan left the rest to his teammates. Nico Boje (12) driving Jayasuriya straight to Attapattu in the covers, Pauls Adams(4) swinging wildly at Chandana and Makhaya Ntini caught at slip off Chandana to finish the innings.

The second innings started after tea and followed a similar pattern to the first. The openers were untroubled by the pace of Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa. The South Africans were allowed to accumulate as Muralitharan rested his tired fingers. Then in the 19th over he was introduced into the attack and bowled in tandem with his Tamil Union colleague, Upul Chandana.

However it was Chandana who made the break through in the 24th over of the innings. Neil Mckenzie well caught by a diving Ranatunga at slip after edging a perfectly flighted land delivery that drifted into the batsmen before turning away.

The South Africans will now be desperately hoping for the timely return of the south westerly monsoon.