S Thawfeeq: Murali provides a deflating end to an English summer (19 Sep 1998)

19 September 1998

Murali provides a deflating end to an English summer

Sa'adi Thawfeeq

There was more than a silver lining to Sri Lanka's recently concluded cricket tour of England and the only grey cloud was the thinly veiled attack on the legality of Muthiah Muralitharan's bowling action by England coach David Lloyd.

Coming to think of it, why Lloyd had to wait until the penultimate day of the Test to cast public aspersions on Muralitharan's bowling makes one suspicious whether there was some conspiracy behind his remarks.

Muralitharan's bowling action seemed to be okay with Lloyd when he took five wickets in the Emirates Triangular final against England at Lord's, and a further seven wickets in the England first innings of the Oval Test where he sent down nearly 60 overs.

Lloyd's sudden outburst on the legality of Muralitharan's bowling action at the end of the fourth day of the Test, makes one wonder whether he was giving some kind of signal to the higher authorities in Lancashire to reconsider signing the Sri Lankan spin king as their overseas player for next season.

After all, Lloyd was Lancashire coach, until he took charge of the England team three years ago. He is still revered for his contribution as a player and coach by the county.

Lancashire however, went ahead and signed Muralitharan for one season, probably influenced by their present coach Dav Whatmore, who was coach of the Sri Lankan team when Muralitharan was called for chucking in Australia three years ago. Whatmore is best remembered for the role he played in making Sri Lanka World Cup champions in 1996.

Muralitharan will play for Lancashire after the World Cup tournament from mid June. Considering the amount of success Muralitharan had on English pitches in the few matches he turned out for his country on the tour, Lancashire are certain to profit by his presence.

Muralitharan appeared in only three first-class matches on the tour, and in each of them took five wickets or more in an innings at least on one occasion. Having come to England as a schoolboy seven years ago and gone home wicketless, Muralitharan begun his second tour of England with a match haul of ten wickets against Glamorgan at Cardiff, a match which Sri Lanka lost despite his splendid bowling. He followed it up with a further eight wickets in the game against Leicestershire at Leicester, which Sri Lanka won.

Then came his magnificent 16-wicket performance in the one-off Test at the Oval, which humbled English pride, after they had all but gone over the moon over their 2-1 series victory over South Africa. Muralitharan's one-man demolition effort provided England a deflating end to the summer and brought home the stark truth that spin bowling is becoming an acute embarassment for them. The famine of home-bred slow bowling is one thing, but the hunger pangs are made even more acute when opponents are feasting themselves.

England literally played into Muralitharan's hands when their batsmen refused to make use of their feet and preferred to play him from the crease which allowed Ranatunga to set attacking fields for his key spinner.

The quality of bowling by leg-spinner Ian Salisbury at the Oval just about sums up the standard of England's spin department. Why England spinners are not effective as their overseas counterparts is rather baffling. The pitches cannot be blamed for it, because Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed, and now Muralitharan have proved that high quality spinners can take wickets on English pitches.

Off-spinner Saqlain is having a great season for Surrey having captured over 60 wickets, and three years ago, leg-spinner Mushtaq finished with 80 wickets for Somerset. The Oval pitch prepared to suit Saqlain's bowling, eventually proved a bonus for Muralitharan and Sri Lanka.

Muralitharan finished the England tour with a rich haul of 34 wickets at a cost of just 13.61 runs apiece, which places him on top of the English first-class bowling averages for the season. His masterful bowling performance of nine wickets in an innings and 16 in the Test at the Oval may clinch him a place as one of Wisden's 'Five Cricketers of the Year' in the time-honoured publication next year. So far only three Sri Lankans have made it to the honours list - all batsmen - Sidath Wettimuny, Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Muralitharan's tally of wickets on the tour, which is almost three times as the next most successful bowler, Pramodya Wickremasinghe with 13, clearly exemplifies to what extent Sri Lanka relies on him for success. In the absence of Chaminda Vaas, the only other Sri Lankan bowler of quality, Muralitharan shouldered responsibilities magnificently to bowl his side to their historic win.

Muralitharan is no doubt in a class of his own, and this is amply demonstrated by the lack of success of the other three Sri Lankan spinners, Kumara Dharmasena (3 wkts., avg. 86.00), Upul Chandana (4 wkts., avg. 32.25) and Niroshan Bandaratilake (1 wkt, avg. 107.00).

Many of the youngsters on tour benefitted immensely by the exposure they received in England, none so than wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene, a product of the same school (St. Sebastian's College) as Romesh Kaluwitharana. Jayewardene improved his cricket with every game, that skipper Arjuna Ranatunga had nothing but praise for him. He picked him as the 'find' of the tour.

Watching Jayewardene keep wickets was a delight. After a long time, it seems Sri Lanka have found a 'natural'. The manner in which he kept wickets and brought off two stumpings and a catch without conceding a single bye on a dreadful pitch (where the top layer came off before the tenth over) at Lakenham in the one-day game against an ECB XI, epitomised his class. He needs to be nurtured carefully because he is a good future prospect.

The injury to Ravindra Pushpakumara gave young Suresh Perera to forge ahead and make his maiden appearance in a Test. Perera has made a fair start and has shown that he is willing to learn. What impressed one most was not his bowling, but his batting. He has a good technique to turn out into a useful all-rounder.

Mario Villavarayen, probably the only Sri Lankan fast bowler who has not had the benefit of being trained at the MRF Pace Foundation in Madras, bowled well within himself to capture nine wickets at a cost of 30.66. An overdue stint in Madras could turn him into a better bowler than he is.

Batting has never been a problem with Sri Lanka, and it was not so on the tour. The only exception was at Cardiff, where they were bowled out for a paltry 54 when not only the conditions and the pitch, but some aweful umpiring decisions too contributed to their downfall.

After a series of failures, which was frustrating to many of his admirers in England, Sanath Jayasuriya finally came good in the last match of the tour, to score a scintillating double century at the Oval, which provided the launch pad for Sri Lanka's effervescent run rate. It was Jayasuriya's solitary major innings of the tour in which he appeared in five of the six first-class matches, captaining in three.

From the batting side, it was Marvan Atapattu who was the most impressive. He averaged over fifty and crossed the fifty mark on three occasions out of seven visits to the crease. Atapattu had the honour of scoring two centuries on the tour at Lord's - 114 against Middlesex, and the match-winning 132 not out against England in the Emirates Triangular final, which had the hallmark of a copybook cricketer.

The tour also enabled Hashan Tillekeratne to re-establish himself his position in the national team, after a poor run following a broken forearm in the Caribbean last year. He received a perfect inswinging yorker from Darren Gough to be trapped lbw first ball in the Test, but overall on the tour batted with his usual flair to take a century off the Leicestershire attack and set up a Sri Lankan victory with Ranatunga, who also contributed a hundred.

Both Ranatunga and de Silva (who played only two first-class innings) made restricted appearances in the county games, giving more opportunities for the youngsters. They had even thought of skipping the first half of the tour, and joining the party from the Triangular stage onwards. It is good they didn't do that, because the younger players profited a lot from their experience.

Two of them, Russel Arnold and Mahela Jayawardene would have benefited immensely from the tour. For Arnold who started off with a bang, by scoring a double century against Somerset, the tour ended in a somewhat sombre note when he collected a 'pair' in his final game against Hampshire. Jayewardene struggled against the moving ball, failing to reach double figures in his first four innings on the tour, but gradually overcame the shortcoming to make 79 against Middlesex at Lord's and 90 against Hampshire at Southampton.

If at all there was a disappointment, it was the failure of Chandika Hathurusingha to live up to his selection as a bowler to make maximum use of the English conditions. He was asked to forget his batting and concentrate on bowling seam and swing, but apart from two spells against Leicestershire and against Middlesex, he failed to fulfil his presence, ending the tour with disappointing figures of six wickets at a cost of nearly 60 runs apiece.

The tour would be incomplete if one doesn't hand kudos to the team management - manager Ranjit Fernando and coach Roy Dias, and physio Alex Kountouri, who handled the side, comprising a blend of youth and experience exceptionally well. They were fortunate enough to have a liaison officer in the calibre of Ahmed 'Alan' Wahab, who proved to be quite a popular figure with the players. Lest one forgets, a bouquet to the national selectors for picking a balanced squad which adapted well to English conditions.

213 - ST Jayasuriya, v England (Oval)
209 - RP Arnold, v Somerset (Taunton)
152 - PA de Silva, v England (Oval)
120 - HP Tillekeratne, v Leicestershire (Leicester)
114 - MS Atapattu, v Middlesex (Lord's)
110 - A Ranatunga, v Leicestershire (Leicester)
108* - UC Hathurusingha, v Hampshire (Southampton)

156* - JP Crawley, for England (Oval)
156 - GW White, for Hampshire (Southampton)
107 - GA Hick, for England (Oval)
105 - DJ Goodchild, for Middlesex (Lord's)
101* - KA Parson, for Somerset (Taunton)

Third Wicket

243 - ST Jayasuriya/PA de Silva, v England (Oval)
108 - DPM Jayewardene/UC Hathurusingha, v Hampshire (Southampton)

Fourth Wicket

199 - RP Arnold/HP Tillekeratne, v Somerset (Taunton)
137 - DPM Jayewardene/A Ranatunga, v Leicestershire (Leicester)
122 - PA de Silva/A Ranatunga, v England (Oval)
102 - MS Atapattu/HP Tillekeratne, v Glamorgan (Cardiff)

Sixth Wicket

119 - HP Tillekeratne/UC Hathurusingha, v Leicestershire (Leicester)

First Wicket

110 - MP Maynard/WL Law, for Glamorgan (Cardiff)

Second Wicket

118 - GW White/WS Kendall, for Hampshire (Southampton)

Third Wicket

118 - ME Trescothick/MN Lathwell, for Somerset (Taunton)

Fourth Wicket

128 - GA Hick/MR Ramprakash, for England (Oval)

Sixth Wicket

126 - KA Parson/ARK Pierson, for Somerset (Taunton)

16/220 - M Muralitharan, v England (Oval)
10/94 - M Muralitharan, v Glamorgan (Cardiff)

Note: There were no instances against Sri Lanka, the best being 9/45 by A Dale for Glamorgan (Cardiff)

9/65 - M Muralitharan, v England (Oval)
7/155 - M Muralitharan, v England (Oval)
5/17 - M Muralitharan, v Glamorgan (Cardiff)
5/77 - M Muralitharan, v Glamorgan (Cardiff)
5/108 - M Muralitharan, v Leicestershire (Leicester)

5/25 - A Dale, for Glamorgan (Cardiff)

591 - v England (Oval)
509 - v Leicestershire (Leicester)
83/6 d - v Somerset (Taunton)
424 - v Middlesex (Lord's)

445 - by England (Oval)

54 - v Glamorgan (Cardiff)
130 - v Somerset (Taunton)

181 - by England (Oval)

Test Match: Played 1, Won 1 (England)

First-class Matches: Played 6, Won 3 (Leicestershire, Hampshire, England), Lost 1 (Glamorgan), Drawn 2 (Somerset, Middlesex)

All Matches: Played 12, Won 8 (Leicestershire, Worcestershire, ECB XI, Northamptonshire (2), Kent, Hampshire, England), Lost 1 (Glamorgan), Drawn 2 (Somerset, Middlesex), Abandoned 1 (Hampshire)

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)