Muralitharan heaps familiar humilation on West Indies

Had it not involved the present West Indies team, Muttiah Muralitharan and the Galle international stadium, the circumstances of Sri Lanka's victory in the First Test here yesterday would have been a case study for Lord Condon and his match-fixing sleuths.

At lunch on the second day, the West Indies were 409 for 4, with Brian Lara entrenched on 167. By tea on the fifth day yesterday, their last man, Colin Stuart, was sending a gentle catch to mid-off for Muralitharan's 11th wicket of the match. A few minutes later, the Sri Lankan captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, was knocking off the six runs required for a triumph by 10 wickets.

It is a sequence that has become habitual on both sides. West Indies have developed an uncanny record of turning domination into defeat and Muralitharan has become adept at bowling Sri Lanka to such emphatic results on this ground.

In Hamilton in December 1998, West Indies ended the first day on 282 for 1 and somehow managed to lose by nine wickets to New Zealand. At Lord's last year, they followed a first-innings lead of 133 with an all-out 54 and lost to England by two wickets. At Adelaide last December, a first-day 274 for 4, with Lara to resume the next morning on 136, ended in an Australia win by five wickets.

For Muralitharan and Sri Lanka, the southern coastal town of Galle, with its 17th century Dutch fort forming an imposing backdrop, has become a cricketing fortress. The little off-spinner with the expressive eyes, elastic wrist and contortionist's action has so mesmerised visiting batsmen that he has now claimed 50 of his 361 wickets, at an average of 17 runs, in the six Tests on the ground since the first in June 1998. Sri Lanka have won four.

Muralitharan swung the course of the match with a spell of 4 for 8, among them Lara, after lunch on the second afternoon, when the last six West Indies wickets tumbled for 39. On the opening day, he had eked out just 1 for 104 from 40 overs.

It was an actual and psychological setback from which West Indies never recovered. Their attack, without a frontline bowler with 50 Test wickets, conceded a first-innings deficit of 142 and left Muralitharan with time to torment his weary opponents.

They started the day with their hopes of avoiding what was their 19th defeat in their last 23 Tests away from the Caribbean resting with Lara and captain Carl Hooper. Lara has shown genuine enthusiasm since arriving in Sri Lanka. He said after his first- innings performance that his aim is to push his waning batting average back up above 50 to be "among the big boys again", for which read Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh.

Twice he called for pain-killers during an hour and 40 minutes in which he scored 40 and overcame Muralitharan's threat. But noticeably relaxing in the first over from a lesser off-spinner, Thilan Samaraweera, he chipped a catch to midwicket. By then West Indies were 131 for 6 and plunging towards ignominy.

Their two young batsmen, Daren Ganga and Ramnaresh Sarwan, had batted through the first hour and 10 minutes of the day in adding 67. Once they were out in successive overs, Ganga sweeping the left-arm spinner Niroshan Bandaratilleke to square leg for 33 and Sarwan snapped up at silly point off Muralitharan for 33, and Hooper followed with a careless drive to extra cover, it was all up to Lara. But it was too much even for him.

The second of the three back-to-back Tests starts in Kandy on Wednesday.