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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya said that Muttiah Muralitharan taking 400 Test wickets was one of the best moments of his cricket career after the World Cup win in 1996. The skilled spinner, bowling in tandem with his captain, spun Sri Lanka to a 315-run win over Zimbabwe at Galle on Tuesday, to mark the country's eight successive Test victory. Muralitharan and Jayasuriya shared 18 of the 20 Zimbabwe wickets that fell (the other two being claimed by Chaminda Vaas) and, one of them gave Muralitharan his 400th in Test cricket, making him the seventh bowler in the world to do so. He was also the youngest and the quickest to get to the target. "After winning the World Cup this was one of the best moments I have witnessed, Murali getting his 400 wickets. It was so emotional," said Jayasuriya. "It is not an easy thing to achieve in a cricketer's career. We wanted Murali to get to the 400 in the first innings, but we didn't have to wait too long," he said. "We over bowled Murali a little bit yesterday because we all wanted him to get the 400 wickets. Today, we are all happy to see him get there. He has done a lot of hard work for Sri Lanka cricket and he has gone through a lot of pressure in his cricket career. We are all happy for him. "The way he is bowling, I think Murali will get 500 wickets for sure. He has developed his bowling and he has a lot of variety. Any team in the world will have a match-winner. "Murali has been the key man for Sri Lanka cricket when he has been performing and, he has been the match-winning bowler for Sri Lanka. We cannot find another Muralitharan. It is very difficult," said Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya said the key to Sri Lanka winning at Galle was the breakthrough they achieved in the fourth morning when five wickets fell for just four runs. "Yesterday (third day) was a hard day for us and today myself and Murali got the breakthrough and we put Zimbabwe under pressure," said Jayasuriya. "We went for quick runs in the second innings because we wanted to declare at tea and also the pitch had started to turn a little bit more. We got the confidence to bowl on the pitch because we bowled well in the first innings. Because of the assistance we were getting from the pitch I thought I bring myself on to support Murali," he said. Sri Lanka's next major series will be in late April when they play their first-ever three-Test series in England and Jayasuriya said his team will have to plan and take on a lot of responsibility and do a lot of hard work before they go there. They will have ten days off before commencing training once again. Zimbabwe captain Stuart Carlisle said the key difference between the two sides was that they didn't have a single genuine spinner in their team. "There is a very simple equation about the whole series. We don't have any genuine spinners and they've got obviously Muralitharan and Jayasuriya today. If you don't have any genuine spinners in Sri Lanka you are always fighting a losing battle," said Carlisle after his team had suffered a 3-0 whitewash in the three-Test series. "If we had two good spinners firstly, you are gonna take more wickets and you are going to avoid the follow-on in Test matches. It makes a whole lot of difference to the Tests. If you have part time spinners and three seamers on flat wickets, you really are not going to get many wickets. You will be chasing 500-600 every time," he said. Carlisle said everything went completely haywire for Zimbabwe on the fourth day when they lost five wickets for four runs in the first innings to conceded a first innings lead of 182. "After three real days of fighting cricket it was very disappointing to lose five wickets for four runs in the morning and suddenly you are out on the field instead of batting out the morning. All the good partnerships we spoke about yesterday didn't happen and obviously we fell far behind again. This morning was crucial and this evening was also very disappointing," said Carlisle. "Losing five wickets for just four runs, I just can't describe that. We thought they will come with the new ball but it was a good tactic to carry on using the old ball. Again our guys just didn't have clear enough game plans. "I think some guys were not sure whether to be positive and play shots on this pitch or just defend. They must have thought if they defend, they will eventually get out. I don't think the guys were 100 percent confident in themselves in their own ability. They were probably thinking more about getting out than actually staying on. "We spoke about it at the beginning of this Test saying that we wanted to try and give a really good performance here. The first two days were looking good, but one day just changed the whole game and, now we are on the plane disappointed," said Carlisle. The Zimbabwe captain praised his vis-a-vis Jayasuriya whom he said varied his pace very well. "He gripped it well. Jayasuriya got the one that comes back and he's got the one that drifts, his arm ball. He varied his pace very well and he knows how to bowl on these pitches. I think he bowled very well," said Carlisle. "I like to think that some of the young guys have learnt from this tour. They've seen the quality of the spin bowlers and what quality they have to work to if they ever come back on a tour here. It is not an easy tour. A lot of other countries find it difficult to play in Sri Lanka because of the conditions and obviously with Murali and all that. It's hard cricket and it's very tough. "I would rather see the young guys play some of the other countries like Bangladesh or New Zealand and gain experience slowly," said Carlisle. He said for Zimbabwe's next tour which is to India, they would need some genuine spinners and that he would like to see more experienced players coming into the team. "There's nothing to take away from any of the young guys. I sense that our team may be a little bit too young and we mustn't rush and change the whole team in one go," he said.
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