Fleming delighted with performance against Muralitharan

Wisden CricInfo Staff

April 29, 2003

Stephen Fleming believes New Zealand are now better-placed to win the second Test at Kandy after having shown that they can survive against Sri Lanka's leading spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

Muralitharan, although economical, toiled hard for his wickets during the opening Test, taking 5 for 181 from 88 overs as New Zealand scored 515 for 7 declared and 165 for five.

"We came over here for a tough series with a lot of young players and have gained valuable experience in the match, putting to bed some of our demons against Murali," said Fleming. "The players now know what they have to do to survive in the middle."

No one did more to blunt the threat of Muralitharan than Fleming, who scored an unbeaten 274 in the first innings and then 69 not out in the second to finish with a match aggregate of 343 - a record for New Zealand, surpassing the 329 accumulated by Martin Crowe against Sri Lanka in 1990-1.

"I have done a lot of work mentally on how I would play him (Murali)," he said. "The advantage that I have got is height and reach. The preparation for playing him the practice games reaped dividends. I am now confident in my technique against him."

He played down his record-breaking exploits: "It doesn't mean a lot to me, although it is nice to have two innings of substance in a game. Very nervous to do it again today.­ I thought we were in a position where we could only lose.

"Martin Crowe is our greatest player. I don't think technique-wise I will be as good as him but I would love to manufacture a record that is similar to his. Nice to go past him and contribute a huge number of runs in one game ­ makes up for some ones where I have missed out," he said.

Fleming, who spent all but 44 minutes of the match in the middle, batted with a runner for part of the final day but expects to recover in time for the second Test starting Saturday.

"I have got a sore bottom from stretching to hit the ball through the covers. I will be icing it tonight to get ready for the next Test. Thankfully, the Neurofen did the trick today, which suggests it is not too serious," he said.

The New Zealand skipper lamented the fact that his side had not scored quicker on the first day and put down the attritional nature of the match to both side's unwillingness to take risks in a two-Test series.

"We had a nervous first day when we had to look hard at the spinners and with that it put us about a session behind where we wanted to be in the game. We could have batted them out of the game but we still had a good crack at bowling them out.

"In the end, you had two nervous teams that were not willing to take too many risks in the first match of a two-Test series. The wicket wasn't offering a lot and it was pure attrition. Teams would have had to take risks to push forward," he said.

© Cricinfo

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