Forget the result of the Test. Sri Lanka need just 95 to win, with more than one session to go on the final day. Look at the bigger picture. Muttiah Muralitharan has reached the magical 800. You are eight wickets short of entering a territory where no other cricketer has left a footprint, you enter the last day of the last Test you will ever play needing two wickets, you take one, your partner threatens to take everything else on offer and you can do nothing but keep on bowling. And wait. The umpire doesn't give a palpable shout for lbw. You wait. VVS Laxman, who kept you at bay for so hours, runs himself out and there is only one wicket left for you to take. You wait. Perhaps even fret. You nearly run out the last pair yourself. Twice. And after 23 wicket-less overs, perhaps self-doubt creeps in and you wonder whether it would come at all. Suddenly, the moment arrives and you are there. Where no man has gone before. The long wait only highlighted the precious toil that went into the preceding 799. What a legend.
It was a script that flirted with romance and the fictional. Lasith Malinga nearly didn't let Murali get to 800. Then the Indian tail refused to relent. The real fight, though, had evaporated in the first over of the day when Malinga yorked MS Dhoni with an awesome reversing outswinger. It seemed to drift towards leg but straightened at the very last second to move past a clueless Dhoni and clattered on the stumps. The only question that haunted you then was will Malinga knock out the tail before Murali gets his two wickets? Either by design or otherwise, Kumar Sangakkara stepped in and removed Malinga out of the attack after just three overs.
