Cricket: Murali’s pain shared by Lancs bowlers

Aug 31 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

LANCASHIRE’S batsmen face a long battle for survival at Canterbury today if they are to secure the 10 points for a draw that would keep their hopes of winning the LV County Championship in reasonable shape.

The Old Trafford side’s chances of victory have surely all but disappeared after the home side made the most of the absence of Muttiah Muralitharan from the visiting attack to score 334 for two, a lead of 344 on a wicket described by Kent skipper Robert Key as the “slowest and lowest “ he has seen at this ground.

But much of the attention at the ground yesterday was centred on a player who took no part in the day’s cricket.

As Key and Matt Walker built their superb second-wicket partnership of 269, Muralitharan explained the sequence of events surrounding the injury which led to him coming off the field on Wednesday.

“I felt pain in my biceps straight away after that ball (the third of his 34th over) so I stopped,” he said.

“I bowled two or three balls in the nets the following morning but felt pain again”.

This is the spinner’s last game of the season for Lancashire. He arrives home on Sunday and any decision regarding his fitness for the World Championship will be taken by his national side’s medical team.

Muralitharan failed to come out to bat or when Lancashire’s players took the field without their best bowler. At that moment the Kent batsmen’s task became a whole lot easier and the game changed.

Lancashire’s two moments of joy arrived when Glen Chapple snared stand-in opener James Tredwell on the crease and when Martin van Jaarsveld obligingly slapped Dominic Cork straight to Paul Horton at deep-cover.