Thought my knees wouldn't stand up to 50 to 60 overs: Muralitharan

Sri Lanka Cricket threw the gates open at Galle International yesterday to allow the public to celebrate with Muttiah Muralitharan his farewell Test and his 800th wicket at this level.

Even the country's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, turned up to have lunch and lend an executive touch of approval to the proceedings.

He shook hands with players of both sides as well as match officials before heading back to Colombo.

They also had a bevy of smartly dressed, local high school bands, including an all-girls band to add pomp and ceremony to the post match proceedings, marching around the field where white flannelled players had worked hard to win the game and celebrate the occasion.

Ojha obliged
Despite having greeted him for his 800th wicket ufffd an edged catch by Pragyan Ojha to first slip Mahela Jayawardeneu00a0 (the same fieldsman helped Muralitharan take his 300th wicket, that ofu00a0 Shaun Pollock at Kingsmead in Durban in December 2000), the crowd stayed on to celebrate the victory by ten wickets.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni said: "You don't want to surrender your wickets to the best bowlers in your opponent team. But at times they get the better of you.

"Muralitharan bowled beautifully and put lot of pressure on the batsmen to earn his wickets. I think he really bowled well to get those eight wickets in this game and I am really happy that he now has 800 wickets to end his Test career."

International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat said: "What was interesting to note is that at one stage, when he was switching ends, the spectators were telling the other bowlers not to take the remaining wicket so that the prize could fall to him in the end. This is a tribute to the high esteem in which he is held by all."

Muralitharan's own thoughts are interesting as well. "I thought it would be best to end it here in Galle because it is my favourite ground," he said.

"This is because we always get a result with pitches prepared like that. Even today, we can see that we won the match in four days. This is the opportunity I was waiting for to perform well, to win the match and finish it nicely," he explained.

Knee fears
About not making himself available for the entire series, Muralitharan said:u00a0 "I thought my knees would not stand up to bowling 50 to 60 overs an innings, or a game. That was my thinking and they (selectors) welcomed that point of view."

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