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Muttiah Muralitharan

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Muttiah Muralitharan is a legendary cricket player from Sri Lanka.

Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan

He is widely known as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the sport. A bowler's job is to throw the ball toward a batter. Murali was a master of off-spin, which is a way to make the ball turn. He was the first wrist-spinning off-spinner to ever play the game. This special style helped him take more international wickets than any other bowler. He helped the Sri Lankan team win the 1996 Cricket World Cup.

MMuralidaranBowling
MMuralidaranBowling

Murali had a very unique way of bowling the ball. He used a short run-up to build speed. Then, he used a very flexible wrist to release the ball. This allowed him to use a special delivery called a doosra. A doosra is a surprise ball that turns the opposite way of his usual shot. He also used a fast topspinner that lands on the seam. His super-flexible wrist meant he could make the ball turn on almost any surface. This skill made him very hard for batters to play.

Murali grew up in a Tamil Hindu family in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

] His father, Sinnasamy Muttiah, ran a biscuit-making business. Murali started his cricket career as a medium pace bowler. However, his school coach, Sunil Fernando, told him to try off-spin when he was fourteen. He became a star at St. Anthony's College. By his final years at school, he had taken over one hundred wickets. He was even named the Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 1991.

His career was full of amazing numbers and big records. He is the only bowler to take 800 Test wickets. He also took more than 530 wickets in One Day Internationals. In 2004, he broke the record held by Courtney Walsh. Later, in 2007, he passed the record held by Shane Warne. He held the number one ranking for Test bowlers for 1,711 days. On July 22, 2010, he took his 800th and final wicket. This happened on the very last ball of his last Test match.

Murali also faced some hard times during his career. Because his arm had a natural bend, some people thought his action was wrong. They worried he was throwing the ball instead of bowling it. Experts studied his movements using special machines. They cleared him of any wrongdoing in 1996 and again in 1999. Despite these worries, he continued to win many great awards. In 2017, he became the first Sri Lankan to join the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He also won the Ada Derana Sri Lankan of the Year award.

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File:MMuralidaranBowling.png
MMuralidaranBowling.png
File:Muttiah Muralitharan.jpg
Muttiah Muralitharan.jpg
File:Muttiah Muralitharan in SCG 2005.jpg
Muttiah Muralitharan in SCG 2005.jpg
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