When Sachin Tendulkar met Muttiah Muralitharan at the World Cup opening ceremony they exchanged the routine pleasantries. Murali wished Tendulkar four or five centuries while the master blaster wanted the spin king to take 30 wickets in the Cup. The mutual admiration between the leading run-getter and Wisden’s Cricketer of the Century was evident on the field too when Murali was given the ball with Sachin and Virender Sehwag in great touch and the scoreboard showing 90 With wickets in hand and the pitch playing true, it seemed to be the ideal time to hit the offie out of the attack. But the Indian — who hadn’t faced Murali in a one-dayer for three years — had other plans: see Murali through and score from the other end. Murali, too, had a plan. Bowling his in-cutter, which drifted in on the legs, he packed the leg side with a square mid-wicket, deep square leg, short fine leg, short midwicket and a deep mid-on. The off side had gaps and runs could be scored there. The inside out shot over extra cover was an option, but playing against the spin was not a risk the Indians were prepared to take. Not even given Murali’s praise of Tendulkar at the nets yesterday: ‘‘I can’t fox Sachin as he reads the ball so early. The class in him comes out when he picks the ball as soon as it is delivered from the bowler’s hand.’’ Tendulkar didn’t play a single stroke against the turn on the off side. All the 17 runs scored were on the leg side. Such was the caution by the Indians against the Murali and the leggie’s first two over just cost six runs and his second spell of five overs cost 16 runs. While old-timers like Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid were watchful when dealing with Murali, the young guns Sehwag, Kaif and Mongia lost their cool and wickets too. Sehwag hit Jayasuriya for a six and then tried the same against Murali. Out. Kaif lost his leg stump after hitting a four and Mongia holed out to long-on after hitting a six. They should have heard the alarm bells that rang even before the toss. Parthiv Patel was keeping wickets on the side pitch as Anil Kumble and Sanjay Bangar were rolling their arms. Murali dropped in and asked if he could join. The first ball be bowled flew past Parthiv’s head; the young keeper had no clue of which way the ball would turn.
