Forget the result of the Test. India are just 48 runs ahead and are staring at defeat at lunch on the final day. Look at the bigger picture. Muttiah Muralitharan waits on 799 wickets and needs to take one of the remaining two India wickets. 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. And after 14 wicket-less overs, you are still left one wicket short of reaching where no man has been before.
It was a script that flirted with romance and the fictional. Lasith Malinga nearly didn't let Murali get to 800. It was the only real battle left on the final day: Murali v Malinga. Whatever little fight was left in the Indians had evaporated in the first over 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.
Murali is 38 now. The wrists aren't as supple, the old fizz is certainly missing, the shoulder aches and the knees creak when he pivots. And he still produces magical deliveries and takes a five-for. Even in his last Test. Yesterday, he removed Dhoni with a magical offbreak and twice had Yuvraj Singh look a tailender. Today, he didn't have to do anything special and had to just remain patient. It's isn't easy to do so when you are so close to a special landmark. The temptation to produce something extra, something magical and something unplayable would have been there but if there was any, he didn't show it. He kept reeling in the off breaks, mixed in the occasional doosra, and varied the pace and the trajectory. And waited.
As expected, men crowded the bat, appeals were made and he trapped Harbhajan Singh in front. Unexpectedly, Abhimanyu Mithun resisted. The time wore on. Malinga remained out of attack. India took the lead. Murali changed ends. The photographers kept clicking every time Murali bowled a ball and ran from end to end for better views. The television cameras continued to do extreme close-ups.
Then it happened. Sangakkara had to bring Malinga back to end the partnership and Malinga knocked out Mithun in the first over with superb inswinging yorker. Some fun followed: Malinga walked towards Murali, shook hands, had a chat, smiled and went back to bowl. The first one was outside off. It was the only ball that Malinga bowled that appeared he didn't want a wicket. The second went to Sangakkara who pushed it out towards short third man but the Indians didn't take the single. The last one was a yorker which was dug out by Ishant.
Malinga was on target ball after ball in his next over but Laxman and Ishant stood firm. It felt right. Malinga bowling well outside off might have smelt like sympathy and a touch of disrespect to Murali. It also felt slightly alarming, though. What if Malinga took both wickets? What if Murali ended up on 799. Perhaps, it wouldn't be bad. Perhaps there was a touch of romance in that. Like Bradman's last-innings duck.
The new ball was taken. And Murali very nearly made his tryst with destiny. A ripping off break from round the stumps seemingly had Laxman in front but umpire Daryl Harper didn't budge. Perhaps, he was wary of ruling it out because of the emotions that the context threw up. Perhaps, he just thought it was clearly missing leg stump. But it was time for lunch. Murali has to wait. So will we