Muralitharan destroys England

CRICKET/Test match: Muttiah Muralitharan single-wristedly destroyed England as Sri Lanka levelled the Test series at Trent Bridge yesterday. Off-spinner Murali ran through England's batting order to claim eight for 70 as the Sri Lankans won by 134 runs to seal a 1-1 draw in the three-match campaign.

Only a spectacular run-out prevented Murali's becoming only the third man in Test history to take all 10 wickets in an innings, following the feats of Jim Laker and Anil Kumble.

After the possibility of a full house was removed by Matthew Hoggard's departure, eighth out to Chamara Kapugedera's superb pick-up and direct hit, Murali lost some fizz and fellow spinner Sanath Jayasuriya wrapped things up shortly after 5pm.

The majority of Murali's victims were earned with his deadly doosra, which disguised as an off-spinner, turns sharply the other way with a flick of his wrist.

England, needing to register 325 and what would have represented a new record chase on home soil to seal the series, began positively when they set off midway through the morning session. They had reached 84 without loss, in fact, after riding their luck somewhat when Murali improved Sri Lanka's standing.

By tea he had his foot on England's throat as his half a dozen wickets in 69 deliveries, at a cost of just 13, left Andrew Flintoff's side on 125 for six.

Strauss recorded his first half-century of the campaign from 88 deliveries. However, on a pitch of increasingly variable bounce, Murali accounted for Alastair Cook leg before and Strauss, caught at slip after an edge off the shoulder of the bat looped up off wicketkeeper Sangakkara's gloves.

Then he got to his 100th five-wicket haul in first-class cricket in a hurry as both Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff, England's power men, were snapped up at short-leg in the space of five balls.

Tillekeratne Dilshan's third catch under the helmet, seizing on a Paul Collingwood forcing stroke which lobbed the ball into the air off his own boot, completed the carnage of the afternoon session.

England were given a hint of what was in store on a surface which encouraged spin bowling when slow left-armer Monty Panesar wrapped up the Sri Lankan second innings quickly on the fourth morning, to finish with a maiden five-wicket haul in Tests.

But Murali operated on another level and his doosra outfoxed former Kent team-mate Geraint Jones to make it seven out of seven.

He was well poised to make another mark in cricket history but 19-year-old Kapugedera homed in on Liam Plunkett's turn to the on-side off Jayasuriya to hurl the ball into the stumps from a virtually horizontal position and send back Hoggard.

Murali continued unperturbed and claimed Jon Lewis as his eighth victim, by a contrasting method as a vicious off-break defeated a defensive prod.

Murali may have been expected to take nine wickets for the third time in his Test career when Panesar came to the crease but England's last man treated him with disdain, sweeping a memorable six in an entertaining last-wicket stand of 37 with Plunkett.

So it was left for Jayasuriya, selected as a second spinner, to end Panesar's showy 26 when a flatter delivery defeated an attempted sweep.