Magical Murali reaches 500

Muttiah Muralitharan joined the elite club of 500 wickets when he snapped Pakistani tailender Sohail Khan.

This leaves Muralitharan just two wickets behind Wasim Akram who holds the record for most number of ODI wickets. Wasim Akram has 502 wickets in his kitty which he took in 356 matches whereas Murali has picked up 500 in 324 matches.

Muralitharan picked up his first wicket against India in 1993 at Colombo. His first victim was Praveen Amre.

His first 50 wickets took him 45 matches but since then all his chunks of 50 wickets have come in less than 40 games. The highest that he took since then was 37 matches to reach 200 from 150 wickets.

Murali has a phenomenal record against all teams but out of his tally of 500 wickets, the maximum have come against Pakistan. He has scalped 86 wickets against them in 59 matches at an average of 25.17.

Murali has more than 50 wickets against five Test playing nations that include Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Zimbabwe and out of these his best average is against the Zimbabweans (14.85).

The magical offie would now play his next ODI against the Indians in the upcoming ODI series and Indians have more to be bothered now since the hungry and wily bowler would be licking his lips at the prospect of becoming the highest wicket taker in the ODI's.