1. 7/30 vs India, Sharjah, 2000
After the Lankan Lions managed to post a massive total of 294/5 thanks to centuries from Mahela Jayawardene and Marvan Atapattu, Muralitharan showed his magic by taking his career-best figures in the ODI format. Thanks to his 7-wicket haul India was bowled out for 226 runs and Sri Lanka went on to win by 68 runs.
2. 5/9 vs New Zealand, Sharjah, 2002
Muralitharan proved to be too good for the Kiwi batters as he only gave away 9 runs in his quota of 10 overs and ended up taking 5 big wickets. Thanks to this incredible spell, New Zealand was restricted to 218/8 after 50 overs. However, the Black Caps managed to defend the low total and bowled out Sri Lanka for 207 runs to win the match by 11 runs.
3. 5/23 vs Zimbabwe, Harare, 2004
Sri Lanka posted a fighting total of 246/7 after 50 overs before Muralitharan decimated Zimbabwe’s batting order. Thanks to his fabulous 5-wicket haul, the hosts were restricted to 221/9 after 50 overs as the visitors won the match by 25 runs.
4. 5/23 vs Pakistan, Dambulla, 2003
After the Sri Lankan team proved to be very disappointing with the bat as they got bowled out for only 172 runs, Muralitharan came to their rescue. His amazing 5-wicket haul massively helped the hosts in bowling out Pakistan for only 160 runs and they went on to win the match by 12 runs.
5. 5/23 vs Pakistan, Benoni, 1998
Batting first, Sri Lanka played quite well and posted 288 runs, setting up a difficult target of 289 for Pakistan to achieve. In reply, Muralitharan got an impressive 5-wicket haul and Pakistan kept on losing wickets regularly. The Lankan Lions bowled them out for only 173 runs to win the match by a big 115-run margin.
The post On this day, 31 years ago, Muttiah Muralitharan made his ODI debut: Here are the spinner’s 5 greatest ODI spells appeared first on Cricket Country.
