Murali breaks the 1000-wicket barrier

Muttiah Muralitharan has been scaling peaks and setting records at a breakneck rate over the last few years, and he added another milestone to his burgeoning list on the third afternoon of the Chittagong match. Playing his 100th Test, Murali made the occasion doubly memorable by taking his 1000th wicket in international cricket. The dismissal itself was a controversial one - Khaled Mashud was given out caught when the ball only hit his pad - but that only meant the inevitable was achieved a few minutes earlier than it would have been. The table below lists the highest wicket-takers - Shane Warne is only 48 behind, but none of the others are within touching distance.

The table below charts out Murali's progression to 1000 wickets. He took 46 matches to get to 100 wickets, and then needed 51 more to get to 200, but that was more because he only played seven Tests during this period. His quickest 100-wicket spell - in terms of matches played - was when he galloped from 600 to 700 in a mere 24 games, 10 Tests (which fetched him 80 wickets) and 14 ODIs.