Seven No Balls: Boxing Day Test 1995

15/03/21

Monday

Hello everyone, I am @shorno. Hope you guys are absolutely fine and good in health. Today I am going to talk about a controversial incident of cricket history during Boxing Day Test 1995 between Australia and Sri Lanka.

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As we all know that Boxing Day Test is a popular stage of test cricket. Basically, this series of test match is held at Victoria, Melbourne in Australia. This series generally happens in southern summer between Australia and other country which is touring Australia. This series of test match was inaugurated in 1950. The incident what I am going to tell that happened during the Boxing Day Test 1995. On that series, umpire Darrell Hair called seven no-balls on Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in his three overs.

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The test match was going well. Though Australia was dominating Sri Lanka as they are hosting the series. Muralitharan was the main believed bowled of the captain. Muralitharan is a legendary spin bowler and one of the best of all time in cricket history. He is famous for his bowling style. The captain sent him to stop Australia but suprisingly, the umpire caught his balls as no balls.

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When Muralitharan was bowling, the umpire D. Hair thought that the off-spinner Murali was deliberately throwing the ball and that's why he considered his bolls as no balls. That time, Murali was very shocked because he was trying his best for winning the match but the umpire repeatedly called his ball as no balls.

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That time Muralitharan was very angry and also showed his anger to the umpire. It also incensed Sri Lankan that time captain Arjuna Ranatunga so much that he took his players off the pitch temporarily to show their protest. Everyone was shocked because of the decision of the umpire. The whole Sri Lanka team was disappointed and their performance went wrong.

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And that effected the match scenario. Australia was dominating with batting. On that match David Boon and Steve Waugh got hundred, Michael Slater, Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting got fifty and they made 500 runs by 6 wickets. Then Sri Lanka made 233 by 10 wickets and went for follow on. Again Sri Lanka batted and made 307 runs in the 2nd innings which made only 41 runs target for Australia. Australia won that match by 10 wickets.

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Later after the match, Muralitharan was called by ICC for throwing by an umpire. He was again tested by ICC. After ICC test, his arm was shown to be flexed within the legal limit of 15 degrees. So, that was ok. Muttiah Muralitharan was tested ok but he didn't forget about the match against Australia at Boxing Day test. That was really a controversial incident in cricket history.

cc:
@steemcurator01
@steemcurator02
@booming03
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