Muttiah Muralitharan

Muralitharan is the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket and in ODI when he took the wicket of Gautham Gambhir on fifth February 2009 at Colombo surpassing Wasim Akram record and having overtaken the previous record-holder Shane Warne on 3 December 2007 in longer version of the game.

Muralitharan had previously held the record when he surpassed Courtney Walsh's 519 wickets in 2004. But he suffered a shoulder injury later that year and was then overtaken by Warne. He is also first in the list of wicket-takers in One Day Internationals.

Averaging over six wickets per Test, Muralitharan is one of the most successful bowlers in the game and the greatest player for Sri Lanka. He plays domestic cricket for the Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club, and county cricket for Lancashire as an overseas player.

Muralitharan's career has been beset with controversy; his bowling action called into question on a number of occasions by umpires and sections of the cricket community. After biomechanical analysis in non-match conditions, Muralitharan's action was cleared by the International Cricket Council, first in 1996 and again in 1999.

The legality of his doosra was first called into question in 2004. This delivery was found to exceed the ICC elbow extension limit of five degrees, assigned for spinners at that time. Based on of official studies into bowling actions, the International Cricket Council revised the elbow flexion limits applying to all bowlers in 2005.

Muralitharan's doosra falls within the revised limits. Muralitharan was left out of the one-day touring squad to West Indies in early 2008, leading to speculation that he may be focusing on Test cricket in the future whilst Sri Lanka built a younger squad for One Day Internationals.

Table : Muralitharan Test Bowling Performance

Aussies’s Days are over now...

NewZealand crash Aussies once again…

The alarm bells first rang about a year ago when Dhoni's India defeated Australia in 'straight sets' in the best of three finals of the Commonwealth Bank Series. Now, after losing 4-1 to a depleted South African side at home, Australia have well and truly fallen off the pedestal.

South Africa now lead the table in the ODI Rankings, ahead of Australia. New Zealand , who won a close series at home against the West Indies, are third.

New Zealand however face a tough away series in Australia and should lose the third spot to India, especially if India can win the ongoing series in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka gained a little after vanquishing Pakistan , but had to struggle to defeat a rejuvenated Bangladesh side in the Tri-Nation tournament.

Bangladesh continued their good form to defeat Zimbabwe in the home series and overtake them in the ODI Rankings.

Table A shows the current ODI rankings.

Table A : Current ODI Ranking

The corresponding ICC ODI rankings (as on January 30, 2008) are South Africa (125), Australia (125), India (120), New Zealand (113), Pakistan (111), England (108), Sri Lanka (106), West Indies (91), Bangladesh (46) and Zimbabwe (20).

Details

The ODI rating, now published regularly over the last seven years, is a judicious combination of every team's weighted index (WI) and tournament index (TI).

The WI, based on the most recent ODI encounters between every pair of teams as shown in Table B, is essentially a weighted average that considers the 'opposition strength' (because wins against strong opponents must be rewarded more) and the 'home-away-neutral' factors (because teams usually win more at home, and lose more playing 'away').

The TI factors in a team's performance in tournaments and series (and thereby seeks to better reward wins in 'big' matches).

Table B: ODI Scorecard

The TI is currently based on a time 'window' spanning the last 12-13 months; i.e. the period January 2008 to January 2009 (see Table C).

Table C : Tournament Point Tally

Indian cricket made history

India won 8 One Day International(ODI) continuously match under the Mahendra Singh Dhoni's captancy . Indian winning race start with England series. India won first ODI at Rajkot with 158 runs against England,in which Yuvraj Singh was declared as a man of the match . Winning race continue with second ODI at Indore with 54 runs. And yuvaraj singh repeat with man of the match. Third ODI at kanpur win by 16 runs and man of the match Harbhajan singh. India continues with forth-winning match at Banglore by 19 runs and Virendra Sehwag was man of the match. Fifth ODI won by 6 wickets at Cuttack and man of the match Virendra Sehwag again.

Currently in India – Srilanka ODI series India won the series by 3-0. India won the first One Day International match with Srilanka by 6 wickets. Man of the match Sanath Jayasuriya. India won the Second One Day International match with Srilanka by 15 Runs. Man of the match Ishant Sharma. India won third ODI match with 147 runs. Man of the match Yuvraj Singh. Now India continues go ahead with its winning race.

India Sri-Lanka 2009 Tour Schedule

28-Jan-2009 First ODI Dambulla 10:00 IST
31-Jan-2009 Second ODI Colombo 14:30 IST (D/N)
03-Feb-2009 Third ODI Colombo 14:30 IST (D/N)
05-Feb-2009 Fourth ODI Colombo 14:30 IST (D/N)
08-Feb-2009 Fifth ODI Colombo 10:00 IST
10-Feb-2009 T-20 Colombo 14:30 IST