News about Muttiah Muralitharan

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE OVAL: As Pathum Nissanka cut Shoaib Bashir for four to put the seal on a brilliant century and a stirring Sri Lankan win, it was hard to avoid the thought that England's Test summer might be remembered, above all, for the one that got away. And it would not be entirely unfair. England have, it's true, won five Tests out of six, and seen the emergence of world-class talents in Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson. At just 20, Shoaib Bashir has nailed down the spinner's gig. There are reasons to celebrate.

EXCLUSIVE BY LAWRENCE BOOTH: Sri Lanka legend Muttiah Muralitharan believes his record haul of 800 Test wickets is unlikely ever to be beaten as the game turns towards the white-ball formats. Murali said he was 'definitely' worried about the future of the Test format, and that his compatriots had lost this series in England because competing attractions had damaged their 'consistency'. On the only previous occasion Sri Lanka have played a Test at the Oval, in 1998, Murali took 16 for 220 with his rubber-wristed off-breaks in a famous 10-wicket win - the fifth-best match figures in Test history, and one of his 22 match hauls of 10 or more, another record.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE KIA OVAL : While children around the country have been returning to school, England have played this Test as if the holidays were round the corner. Victory is not yet out of reach, with Sri Lanka - nine wickets intact - needing another 125 on Monday to avoid a 3-0 whitewash. But faced with the chance to complete a first perfect summer in 20 years, Ollie Pope's team have been complacent and careless in equal measure. Only Jamie Smith, who has enjoyed a superb first season at Test level, escaped censure as England - armed with a lead of 62 - were dismissed in their second innings for 156, their lowest total at home for two years.

LAWRENCE BOOTH: Graham Thorpe, who has died - at the age of 55 - established himself during a memorable 100-Test career spanning the millennium as the outstanding England batsman of his generation. If Mike Atherton excelled in defence, and Alec Stewart was flamboyant in attack, Thorpe - once hailed by his team-mate and close friend Nasser Hussain as a 'little genius' - had it all: technique and ticker, plus a sharp cricketing brain and chameleon-like adaptability. Whether scoring a hundred against Australia's quicks at the WACA or defying Muttiah Muralitharan on a Colombo turner, he was England's man for all seasons. At times, it seemed only an intense nature and occasionally troubled private life could stand in his way.

NASSER HUSSAIN AT TRENT BRIDGE: A quickfire win at Lord's was a great send-off for Jimmy Anderson, but if England want to grow as a side the key is to win when the pitch is flat and the ball's not doing that much. This pitch at Trent Bridge was not dissimilar to ones that you might find in parts of Australia and they will perhaps need some of the characteristics their attack displayed in this match down the line. Not that winning away is a struggle that concerns England alone. It's been a struggle for all touring teams in Test cricket since 2001 and we used a graphic on Sky Sports yesterday to highlight the correlation between the most successful of the top eight nations overseas in that period and the pace of their bowlers.

Mark Wood has taken the retired Jimmy Anderson's place in the England squad for next week's second Rothesay Test against West Indies at Trent Bridge. Durham fast bowler Wood, 34, was not considered for England's innings and 114-run win at Lord's days after he returned from Twenty20 World Cup duty. But he has been asked to join up in Nottingham in the only change in personnel to the 14 that were selected ahead of the three-match series.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Ben Stokes wants Jimmy Anderson to travel to Australia next year as England seek to turn their greatest seamer into their new fast-bowling coach. Anderson will remain in the dressing-room for the rest of the summer after he marked his final Test, an innings victory over West Indies at Lord's, with four more wickets to finish with a total of 704 - behind only Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne. Asked whether Anderson might turn his mentoring role into a more formal position by the time England attempt to regain the Ashes in late 2025, Stokes replied: 'Yeah, definitely. That's why we're asking him to stay around.

Jimmy Anderson's legendary Test career will come to an end this week and what a ride it has been. Anderson, who turns 42 at the end of the month, plays his 188th and final Test match of a 22-year England career against West Indies at Lord's.  Mail Sport have spoken to those closest to get a proper understanding of what makes the great man tick.

As he shoots a new project this week, Freddie Flintoff is getting ready for his TV return after a horrific crash on Top Gear put him out of action for months. The Ashes hero, Robert Blake, is now shooting a second series of his BBC cricket show Field of Dreams. It comes as new photos of him out and about show that his facial scarring have been significantly better healed than those from seven months ago in September 2023.

My mum was there in person, but she was also standing next to Jimmy's dad Michael in the stands, and she sent me snapshots of the two of them doing superstitious cricket activities like swapping seats or going for walks for good fortune in the name of getting him to that 700. We all know that it means absolutely nothing, but we still do it. It's a spectacular achievement, but not one that I can recall from another fast bowler versus another. When people talk about Jimmy, they generally emphasize that they have the dedication and the mental strength to keep going forward, and, of course, there are times when you can't play in the wrong climate, but we should really marvel at his talent, because that is what it has taken to get so many wickets under different conditions, challenging the best batters in the world for more than 20 years.

NASSER HUSSAIN: When David Lloyd, our long-serving England columnist, was England coach, he used to say, 'Whoever's in the opposition doing your job, be better than him.' Phil Tufnell, who was up against Shane Warne, was thinking about Spare. Or imagine Robert Croft's face as Muttiah Muralitharan was spinning it four yards. Likewise, discussing England's new spin incumbents alongside India's outstanding trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel is a chalk and cheese talk. Given the fact that Jack Leach is returning from a long-term injury, teenage Rehan Ahmed is playing his second Test and Tom Hartley is on debut, it would be unfair to compare.

After a review in Perth, the 36-year-old trapped Faheem Ashraf leg before his wicket on day four of the first Test as the hosts cruised to a 360-run win. Lyon's success was slowed by sickness during last summer's Ashes series, and she is the third Australian to reach this height, following in the footsteps of late Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Only Muttiah Muralitharan, who leads the way with a stunning 800, Warne, Anil Kumble, Stuart Broad, McGrath, and Courtney Walsh have received more Test scalps.

When Slumdog Millionaire first debuted in theaters 15 years ago, it shocked not only the world of cinema, but also the world as a whole. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is the subject of the hit 2008 film, which was inspired by the novel Q&A series, as he defends allegations that he cheated on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and discusses how he got there. It went on to win eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director Best Adapted Screenplay, and others. However, some of the children did not make it to the same shanty towns after being dispersed at the Oscars. Here's a look at the film's adult leads and the children who appeared in the younger versions.

LASTON (LA): Critics of Bazball have joked that it's blasphemous to criticize Ben Stokes' England, but a new, more heretical view is creeping up on us. How much more will we get to see of Jimmy Anderson? The answer was not positive on the fourth day of this strange second Ashes Test: not so much. And it wasn't simply because England spent the afternoon responding to Australia's short-ball barrage with one of their own, a sledgehammer tactic at odds with Anderson's scalpel. For as long as trying to anticipate his death, a mug's game, and it seems that the sub-clause 'who turns 41 in July' has been a journalistic staple. The start of July was Saturday, for what it's worth.

When Australia toured England in 2001, they won the first Test at Edgbaston by an innings and 118 runs and swagger of hard men relishing the prospect of a match they were certain to win.

ISAAN KHAN AT TRENT BRIDGE: At the first glance of the final scorecard, a few perplexities appear. Sophie Ecclestone and Tammy Beaumont, both a 10-wicket haul and a double century, have come out as losers definitely stands out. It was Australia that stepped up at the pivotal moments of a riveting five days as a unit. Ash Gardner was on the fore again to take all five remaining England wickets and seal victory by 89 runs. Muttiah Muralitharan said her match figures for 165 runs are the highest-ever at Trent Bridge for a spinner.

Shane Warne's Test career took in 708 wickets, with the Australian legend famous for making batters look stupid. In a career that reimagined leg spin, he dismissed Jacques Kallis, Andrew Strauss, and Marcus Trescothick. Only Muttiah Muralitharan took more Test wickets, and no one did as much to please and inspire supporters as much as they did.

As Australia levelled the ODI series after thrashing India by ten wickets in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, Steve Smith took a stunning catch. The Aussies ripped into India's batting line-up, with the hosts bundled out for 117, their fourth-lowest ODI total at home, as Mitchell Starc took five wickets and Sean Abbott chipped in with three wickets. As Smith, who is still standing in as skipper in place of Pat Cummins, began to his right to exclude Pandya for 1.

Jimmy Anderson has risen to the top of the Test bowling rankings for the first time in nearly four years, after being integral in England's series of victories over Pakistan. In Multan, the evergreen England seamer took three for 60 to help the tourists take an unassailable 2-0 lead, raising his total number to eight victims in two matches on Pakistani soil and putting him ahead of India's Ravichandran Ashwin in second place in the ratings table. In the standings, the 40-year-old now has Australia captain Pat Cummins only ahead of him. He ranked so well among the world's top bowlers in February 2019.

Tennis is on standby as Roger Federer (inset) prepares for his final match at the Laver Cup next weekend, and the entire sporting world will follow. Despite sharing the spotlight with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in recent years, the Swiss star has been on the front page of tennis for nearly two decades, and his retirement from the sport will no doubt be felt in years to come. When the 20-time Grand Slam champion announced his retirement on Thursday that it was beyond tennis, it transcended tennis. Millions of people were moved by his retirement, both inside and outside the sport world. Following Federer's retirement from tennis, So Sportsmail has ranked ten outstanding sports stars from LeBron James (left), to Tiger Woods (right), as well as veteran footballers Cristiano Ronaldo (top center) and Lionel Messi (bottom center).

It was his 100th Test wicket at Lord's when Stuart Broad had South Africa's wicketkeeper Kyle Vernne trapped behind. After Muttiah Muralitharan (166 at Colombo's SSC, 117 at Kandy and 111 at Galle), Jimmy Anderson (117 at Lord's) and Rangana Herath (102 at Galle), he became the fourth Test bowler to reach three figures at a single venue.

Gina Stewart, Australia's hottest grandma, claims she dated Shane Warne from 2018 but promised to keep their intimate information private. Ms Stewart said she decided to reveal the truth after months of hiding her heartbreak over his death because she wanted 'people to know' she was a truly caring humanitarian.' Shane Warne was regarded as one of the best cricketers of all time, and his sudden death of a heart attack at 52 on March 4 caused a massive outpouring of grief online. On March 30, a state funeral held at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds brought cricket greats, celebrities, and Warne's loved ones to pay their respects to his fallen friends.