Muttiah Muralitharan, whose cricketing journey longed for almost 20 years, is the leading wicket-taker in both ODI and Tests.
Despite the controversies he faced throughout his career, the legendary Sri Lankan spinner holds the maximum number of bowling records in both the primary forms of the game.
This article will be a statistical breakdown of all his milestones and records, Murali holds in both the formats.
Muralitharan’s Test records and milestones
- Muralitharan has picked up a whopping number of 800 wickets in 133 test matches, averaging 6 wickets per Test.
- Holds a massive record of 67 five-wicket hauls – the highest ever
- 22 ’10-wickets in a match’ – the game’s best again
- 44039 – the most balls bowled by a single bowler in Test cricket
- Muralitharan has an unique accomplishment of getting 10 or more wickets in a match against all other nine Test-playing nations.
- 50 wickets against all Test-playing nations of his time – another record held by Murali
- Held the number one spot in the International Cricket Council’s player rankings for Test bowlers for a record period of 1711 days spanning 214 Test matches.
- 493 and 307 – the legendary spinner’s Test wickets in home and away conditions, respectively. Murali is still the leading wicket taker in home Tests, and second placed in Tests away from home after Shane Warne.
- 112 wickets against England – the highest wicket tally by an Asian bowler against a single non-Asian team in Tests.
- 10 wickets in 4 consecutive Test matches – Murali is the only player to achieve this, and he has done it twice in his epic career.
- The Sri Lankan team has won 90 Test matches till now. Muralitharan has played significant roles in 54 of these.
- Muralitharan is one among the two players to pick 9-wickets in an innings twice in his career, the other being Jim Laker, who did the same in two innings of a single Test match at Manchester in 1956.
- The Sri Lankan off-spinner is part of the most successful bowler/fielder combination to pick the highest number of Test wickets. Muralitharan/Jayawardene combo has involved in 77 Test wickets for their team, with the latter being the highest number of catch-taker in Tests.
- Fastest to 350 Test wickets (a record equaled by Ravichandran Ashwin lately). Also, the Sri Lankan took the least matches to pick 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, and 800 in Test format. Can Ashwin hold onto break few of these numbers?
- Murali holds the record for the most number of Test wickets taken by bowled (167) and stumped (47). He also tops the most ‘caught & bowled’ (35) wickets in Test jointly with Anil Kumble.
- He once dismissed all the opponent’s playing 11 in a Test match. Only five others have achieved the same feat.
- Muralitharan places himself in all top 3 positions of the chart for the Most Test wickets in a single ground. He is also the only bowler to pick more than 100 Test wickets in three different venues.
| PLAYER | VENUE | MATCHES PLAYED | WICKETS TAKEN | 5-FOR /10- FOR | BEST BOWLING (INNS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M Muralitharan (SL) | Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo | 24 | 166 | 14/4 | 8-87 |
| M Muralitharan (SL) | Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy | 16 | 116 | 11/5 | 9-51 |
| M Muralitharan (SL) | Galle International Stadium | 15 | 111 | 11/4 | 7-46 |
| J Anderson (ENG) | Lord’s, London | 23 | 103 | 6/0 | 7-42 |
| HMRKB Herath (SL) | Galle International Stadium | 19 | 102 | 9/3 | 7-48 |
- Only player to pick 75+ Test wickets in a calendar year, thrice in his career (2000, 2001 & 2006). On the chart of picking the maximum wickets in a calendar year in Tests, Murali’s 90 wickets in 2006 stands at the 2nd position.
Muralitharan’s ODI records and milestones
- Muralitharan has picked a mammoth total of 534 ODI wickets in 341 ODI innings he bowled, with at an average of 23.1.
- A total of 10 five-wicket hauls in the limited-overs cricket – the second best after Waqar Younis, who tops the chart with 13 5W hauls.
- 18811 – Most numbers of balls bowled in ODI
- 35 – Most number of dismissals by ‘Caught and bowled’
- 56 – Most number of dismissals by stumping
- 68 – The most number of wickets in World cup tournaments
- 23 – number of wickets in World Cup 2007 – the second leading wicket-taker of the tournament
- 53 – the leading wicket-taker against Australia, which was the toughest team of his era
- 74 & 96 – number of ODI wickets against India and Pakistan. With this, Murali is still the leading wicket-taker against India (wickets) and Pakistan (wickets) – the best sides of his time in tackling the spinners.
Combined Records
- 1347 – Total number of international wicket across formats, ranks first in the overall international wickets chart, followed by Shane Warner, 1001 and Anil Kumble, 956.
- 77 – Total number of 5-fors Muralitharan has grabbed across formats. Again, he tops the chart being the lone bowler to have more than 50 5-fors in cricket across formats.
- 63132 – Most balls bowled in International cricket
- Muralitharan has picked 100 wickets in a calendar year four times in his career (1998, 2000, 200, & 2006) – Only player to achieve this feat more than 3 times. Shane Warne is the only other player to pick 100+ wickets in a calendar year twice in 1994 and 1999.
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