bigfluffylemon wrote:For the first one, I was going to say A, on the basis of Murali v Warne, until sussex pointed out Murali's record in India. Given his incredible record in spinning conditions elsewhere, I was staggered by that. But I guess he was bowling against the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly etc
I think a lot of it tends to be down to the Indian pitches at the time, as the Indians tended to front up pitches (especially in all Asian matches) that at least were flat to begin with, and depending on how the pitch deteriorated, you'd see either huge first innings scores leading to potential results as day 4-5 got harder to bat out (in exceptions, most didnt break up), or the type of mid-2000s Pakistan v India affair when both sides had players scoring 300s in bore draws, if the pitch didnt break up. I remember watching the Sri Lanka v India game at Brabourne right at the end of Murali's career, and the track was dead as a doodoo, you could have hand picked the finest 5 spinners in history, and an average India batting line up would still would have wracked up near the 700-800 they got.
It helped that India's premier spinner, Kumble, thrived more on bounce and pace variation, then ragging spin. I think Kumble did very well in matches vs Asian teams, because they didnt have to open up the game to the oppositions spinners, they could produce pitches that gave Kumble advantages without the others. I guess the 1998-99 series was an exception, but if memory serves, protesters dug those pitches up to stop Pakistan/India touring each other, so the pitches fell apart quickly, and both sets of spinners raged (Kumble got his 10 in the innings, Saqlain I think got a 5/for in every single innings of the series).
In contrast, Sri Lankan pitches of this time always broke up. The biggest example would be somewhere like the Sinhalese Sports Club pitches in Colombo, where the first innings may have been played in some cases on slow tracks, but eventually the cracks always opened up, the pitch would break up and dust, and results would often come. I think Sri Lanka thrased India in the early 2000s there, scored 600 in the first innings, then by day 3 the ball started turning, and Murali bowled India out twice in a day. Lost by an innings and a few.
Sri Lankan pitches tended to offer the spinner some unique advantages too. Murali had an excellent record at Galle, somewhere which is a prime example of an Asian pitch that I think offered low scores/wickets for all, even seamers have traditionally done well there until the Tsunami changed the pitch. Its said that sea breeze coming over the low stands had a habit of making those flighty spinners really hard to pick on length, so tracks could be slow but still batsman would struggle. Kandy is in the mountains, and before Pallekele Stadium opened, the only Trinity Ground there would produce similar problems with flight, as at 1000m in altitude the ball would be said to hover that little bit more in the air.
These types of factors werent available in India, so its much harder place for a spinner to bowl.
Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 4:38 pm
