IND vs SL 2021: "Full Toss Changed The Course Of The Match" - Muttiah Muralitharan Opines On Sri Lanka's Win

Former Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan notified that the six that went off the full toss bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar changed the game on its head towards Sri Lanka. Indeed, Dhananjaya De Silva managed to pull off a win for Sri Lanka along with the lower order contributions from Wanindu Hasaranga and Chamika Karunaratne.

The message was clear from the Sri Lankan dugout to take the game until the last over, and India’s 132 looked meagre at the final stages of the game. Sri Lanka managed to stay in the series and have levelled the T20I series 1-1 with one game to go.

Muralitharan Feels India Gave A Very Good Fight

Muttiah Muralitharan felt that India’s total wasn’t enough on that pitch and lauded the Indian team for showing up a good fight despite having very few runs on the board. He praised Dhananjaya for batting well and noted that Karunaratne’s six in the bowling of Bhuvneshwar tilted the game in favour of the Sri Lanka side. He added that 14-15 runs in the last over would have been tough to chase for Sri Lanka.

“Yeah, definitely because the total was not enough. 132 was not a par score, but India gave a very good fight because it looked at one time we’ll win the match, but Dhananjaya played well and Karunaratne came and that six he hit off the full toss changed the course of the match and changed the equation. So, if we had 14-15 to chase in the last over, it would have been difficult for Sri Lanka,” Muralitharan said while speaking to ESPN Cricinfo after the match.

“India Was Depleted Due To COVID” – Muttiah Muralitharan

Muttiah Muralitharan opined that the Indian team looked depleted without resources due to the Covid-19 issues and reckoned the lack of all-rounders meant India couldn’t go hard at the top. He added that Navdeep Saini wasn’t used on the pitch because of the slowness of the pitch and lauded the other Indian bowlers.

“I think India was depleted due to COVID and they only played with 5 batsmen and no all-rounders at all. That made them very difficult to set a decent total for Sri Lanka. Bowling wise, they had decent bowlers and only used five bowlers and did not use the fast bowler because the wicket was on the slower side,” Muralitharan added.

Muttiah Muralitharan holds the record for taking the most number of wickets in Tests and ODI internationals.