Murali takes his 700th wicket as Lanka makes a clean sweep

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Asgiriya

CRICKET: Sri Lanka's three nil clean sweep over Bangladesh was overshadowed by the superb individual brilliance of Muttiah Muralitharan who became only the second bowler in Test history to pick up seven hundred wickets.

The champion off spinner returned outstanding figures of six wickets for 54 as Bangladesh were bundled out for a modest 176 in their second innings giving Sri Lanka an innings and 193 runs victory on the fourth day of the third and final Test match at the Asgiriya International Stadium in Kandy.

Muralitharan's 700th victim was the Bangladesh number eleven batsman Syed Rasel who was snapped up by Farveez Maharoof with a good running catch at mid off. The 35 year old playing in his 113th Test match also completed his 60th five wicket haul and the 20th occasion he had claimed over ten wickets in a match. His heroics also earned him the man of the match award as well as the man of the series award.

His performance was even more significant considering the fact that he was performing in front of his home crowd and at a venue where he had earlier picked up his 500th wicket. Even then his success was in the balance at one stage because the three pacemen Lasith Malinga, Sujeewa de Silva and Farveez Maharoof were also bowling exceptionally well.

In fact the left arm seamer Sujeewa de Silva almost spoiled Muralitharan's celebrations after he captured two quick wickets shortly after the lunch interval. Bangladesh were well placed at 106 for 2 at one stage and looked like stretching the game into the fifth and final day for the first time in the series.

This was mainly due to the stubborn batting of Shahriar Nafeez who held on determinedly in scoring a solid half century. His contribution of 64 runs was worth more than that as he toiled hard under difficult conditions against some hostile bowling from the home side.

The left-hander successfully negotiated the Sri Lankan pace attack during the morning session and was shaping up for a long innings. But he was eventually deceived by the spin maestro Muralitharan and thereafter the Bangladesh innings simply collapsed and surrendered quite meekly at the end.

The dismissal of the Bangladesh captain Mohamed Ashraful was another turning point of the match with Muralitharan making things to happen with a lot of spin and bounce. But Muralitharan's chances of reaching the milestone looked bleak thereafter with Lasith Malinga and Sujeewa de Silva getting their act together well.

Malinga of course gave Sri Lanka the initial breakthrough after they had declared their first innings at the overnight score of 500 for 4 with a lead of 369 runs. Sujeewa de Silva then produced a great spell of bowling with the old ball that earned him two late wickets. The left arm paceman concentrated more on the off stump and produced a number of wicket taking deliveries during his new spell shortly after lunch.

De Silva forced the batsmen to drive on the front foot on many occasions and through that way he was able to find the edge of the batsmen into the wicket keeper or the slip cordon. But Muralitharan was also keen to get the maximum from this opportunity and soon polished off the Bangladesh tail by capturing the last two wickets.

Sri Lanka's success in this match also marked their 50th Test victory since having gained the official Test status and it was also the tenth successive win against Bangladesh.

This is only the third time that a team has won all matches in a three-Test series by an innings. The earlier instances were when England beat West Indies in 1928 and India defeated Sri Lanka in 1994.

The two teams will return back to Colombo for the three match One Day International Series which gets underway on July 20 at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium. The second and the third one dayers will be played on July 23 and 25 both at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

BANGLADESH 1ST INNINGS

131 (M. Muralitharan 6-28, S. De Silva 29)

SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS

500-4 declared (K. Sangakkara 222 not out, M. Jayawardene 165, S. Rasel 3-104) BANGLADESH 2ND INNINGS Javed Omar c Sangakkara b Malinga 22 Shahriar Nafees c M. Jayawardene b Muralitharan 64 Habibul Bashar b Muralitharan 15 Mohammad Ashraful lbw b Muralitharan 19 Mushfiqur Rahim c Tharanga b De Silva 1 Tushar Imran c M. Jayawardene b Malinga 17 Rajin Saleh c M. Jayawardene b De Silva 0 Mashrafe Mortaza c sub (Warnapura) b Muralitharan 8 Mohammad Rafique not out 0 Shahadat Hossain b Muralitharan 5 Syed Rasel c Maharoof b Muralitharan 4 Extras: (b4, lb1, nb13, w3) 21 TOTAL (all out in 59 overs) 176

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-47 (Omar), 2-98 (Bashar), 3-123 (Nafees), 4-138 (Ashraful), 5-138 (Rahim), 6-142 (Saleh), 7-166 (Mortaza), 8-167 (Imran), 9-172 (Shahadat).

BOWLING: Malinga 10-0-46-2 (nb6, w1), De Silva 12-4-34-2 (nb4, w2), Maharoof 16-7-37-0 (nb3), Muralitharan 21-5-54-6. Sri Lanka won by an innings and 193 runs; sweep series 3-0.