murali has taken over 50 wickets in his last five games if thats downhill he must be really great.

I think that Warnes dalliance with drugs has not been often quoted. Yes, he used an illegal substance once, but he was punished and no accusation has been made before or since.

I would say Warne primarily because he has not played the minnow teams as much (so very few cheap) wickets.

In terms of Milo's point it is true that Warne has less opportunity to take wickets (with so many other great bowlers to compete with to take wickets), but it must be a lot easier for him to settle when McGrath and Lee/Gillispie have nicked out both openers, where as Sri Lanka so often have to get Murali into the attack because of the relative weakness of the other bowlers around him (with Vaas being the only exception). So the pressure is always on Murali to perform.

As it is though I would still go for Warne, but both are great bowlers. Murali though will end up the leading wicket taker though, of that I have no doubt.

im sorry i do not think muruli has taken 50 wickets in the last 5 test matches he has played... i last saw him bowl against bangladesh in the CT in india and he went for 47 of 10 with 1 wicket. Thats not the muruli i remember.

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Been done to death a million times like.

For the record, it's Warne from me.

murali when he comes onto bowl he almost immediately gets the breakthrough. with your 1 fa 100 statement, warne isnt likely to get many wickets on the first few batters, all he does is clean up the tail after the pacers do 4-5 wickets of damage. and in england as i recall in the ashes he sent down 35 overs wicketless, these 35 overs went for more than 100 and he got 5 wickets in the end. so aussies use warne despite the fact he is a drug cheat, ass and embarassment

You could also say that Murali has more chances because apart from Vaas there is really no other bowlers who gets wickets so he has more chances to take wickets, Warne has always had McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, Kasprowicz occasionally MacGill plus earlier bowlers. You could also say that Murali bowls on pitches favoured to him more often.

Its a debate that will go on for ever, I say we just appreciate that were are able to watch the best two bowlers to ever play the game currently playing

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.

Alright people, lets get a few things straight here so we don't need to have this post ever again.

Its much, much easier for spinners to bring in wicket hawls in the sub-continent. The pitches over there are tailor made for spinners like mutai. You only had to look the performance of new zealands spinners a couple of nights ago in the ICC champions trophy.

Secondly, in terms of all round cricket ability, warny is an absolute gun batsmen and murali throws his wicket away half the time. I mean, what about Warnes efforts with not only the ball but the bat as well in last years ashes series. Without Warne, Australia would have been absolutely decimated last year.

Thirdly, if you ever watch Warne bowling for a while you'll realise just how much preasure he puts on batsmen. Even if he doesn't get them out, he softens them right up for the likes of Lee to come back on and clean up. Warne is forever putting the preasure on (even if it means a bit of sledging here and there).

With due respect, Murali is an absolute legend of the game no doubt what so ever. But in all, Warne has the record and will have for quite some time. And he's been able to do it without chucking!!!!! (sorry about that cheap shot - im glad Murali wasn't banned from the sport he's good to watch).

hey lets get another thing sorted out. Yes he was out of action for taking a banned substance. BUT it wasn't steroids or performance enhancing one little bit. IT was something to do with pain relief and quicker injury recovery. THe drugs most certainly have never allowed him to play better.

Warny is a gun - remember that ball - Gatting was it?

Ok firstly he took a banned diet pill that was not performance enhancing hes not a steriods junky like Shoaib and Asif, secondly about the statement fo Warne only wraping up the tail and Muralitharan getting mainly the top batsman out is clearly a blatent guess with no factual evidence so I will show the evidence.

These is a pie graph showling wickets taken by batting order

Warne

Top order (1-3): 158 (23.1%)
Middle order (4-7): 274 (40.0%)
Lower order (8-11): 253 (36.9%)


Now concidering that he is teamed up with McGrath who gets 40% (219) of his wickets in the Top order 1-3 its quite impressive with Gillespie taking 38% of his wickets in the top 1-3 Warne does not get much of a go at the top batsma, but is still able to get 25.3% of his wickets at 1-3.

Muralitharan

Top order (1-3): 166 (25.3%)
Middle order (4-7): 289 (44.0%)
Lower order (8-11): 202 (30.7%)



I don't have to say anything about Muralitharan he is a great bowler and we are blessed to watch him play and in twenty years people who never saw him will wish they had have been able to see the great Muralitharan in a test match, much in the same way as Bradman.

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Bill Ponsford - The only one who could play in Bradman’s company and make it a duet.

Well done Quagmire I really like those stats. It looks like you have given it an effort.

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CRICKET IS IN MY BLOOD