Cricket Blog

Muralitharan took his 700th wicket against Bangladesh as his team won a comprehensive victory by an innings and 193 runs. The 700th scalp was Syed Rasel. He now joins Shane Warne as only the second bowler in cricket history to cross the 700 wicket barrier in test matches. With only 8 more wickets required to become the leading wicket taker in tests, Muralitharan’s carrier could very well have been over even before it started. The bent elbow has been his Achilles’ Heel. It has provided him with the turn that he can generate off any surface and has landed him into a lot trouble as well.

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A statistical comparison between the two legends:

Tests - Batting
Matches 137 Innings 220 Not out 23 Runs 10922 Balls Faced N/A Highest 248* Average 55.44 100s 37 50s 43 4s N/A 6s 42 Catches 89 Strike rate N/A	Matches 131 Innings 232 Not out 6 Runs 11953 Balls Faced 19753 Highest 400* Average 52.88 100s 34 50s 48 4s 1559 6s 88 Catches 164 Strike rate 60.51

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India have started their tour of England in emphatic style. After electing to bat first against Sussex in their county game, barring the dismissals of Wasim Jaffer and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, all other batsmen got amongst the runs. Dinesh Karthik and Gautam Gambhir laid the foundation for Dravid, Laxman and Yuvraj to milk the bowling. India declared their innings at 388-7. Laxman was the last to get out, missing out on his century by a whisker.

Earlier, Dravid had no hesitation in batting first after winning the toss. Wasim Jaffer and Dinesh Karthik opened for India. Jaffer was the first to depart. After battling it out for 47 balls, he got 12 runs and edged one back to the keeper. Gautam Gambhir was then sent in at number 3. After a tentative start, he got on his own and the cuts and pulls were more easier to come. Kartick on the other hand was playing solidly and continued on his rich form. He has really turned out to be a find for India and is a better wicketkeeper than Dhoni. After the performance of these three, I would not be surprised if its Kartick and Gambhir who open for India in the first test. Jaffer seems to only perform when his spot in the team is on the line.

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Here is the official list of the teams and players as per ICC rankings. I will try to keep this updated as regularly as possible. However the latest and most updated rankings can be found here.

For full Player ratings, click here.

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India now begin their 2 month tour of England on the 7th of July where they take on county team Surrey in a four day match. In what is termed to be the last tour to England for many veterans in the Indian squad, the preparation could not have been planned any better. Winning the tightly contested 3 match future cup against world number 2 South Africa may have just given the tonic to remedy this team’s bitter pain from the shock World Cup exit.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly have been the Big 3 for Team India for almost a decade now and their exit is going to leave a proverbial black hole in the team. For these are rare players who will win matches for you single-handedly. They have the capability to force the result in any conditions. And the good news for India is that all three look in spectacular form.

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