Murali looking beyond doosra

Murali had been trying out an elbow brace designed by Colombo-based Dr Mandeep Dhillon, who had approached the spinner with the experiment. The brace proved that the speed came more from the shoulder during the delivery swing than gaining an advantage with the elbow flexibility allowance. ‘‘ I think it worked well’’, Murali said, ‘‘the results showed it.’’ His gratitude towards one Indian won’t, of course, extend to Dhillon’s countrymen over the next fortnight. Murali was interested to see how the Indian batsmen were going treat his bowling without the controversial delivery.

‘‘My main challenge now is to prepare my focus for this tournament’’, he said. He was looking forward to bowling to Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid and even Sehwag.

The challenging spectre of bowling to Tendulkar though was always daunting and when asked to compare the Indian with Brian Lara, Murali was diplomatic. ‘‘It is hard to compare Lara to Tendulkar. Both are great, only I have bowled more to Lara in Tests than to Tendulkar’’, Murali said. ‘‘Greatness comes in different forms and as I haven’t bowled to Tendulkar in a Test for six years it’s hard to say who the better of the two is. ’’

Both Lara and Tendulkar also have an ability withstand serious pressure. Too much was expected of the classy Indian limited-overs batsman as it was of Lara. ‘‘If you can control pressure, as they can, you can control the way you bat and score runs the way they do. My one advantage is that I can make more than one mistake and get away with it but a batsman’s mistake can lead to him losing his wicket,’’ he said. ‘‘The greatness of these two is how to control the pressure placed on them by millions. In Tendulkar’s case it is a matter of scoring 30 or 40 — or even 50 — yet people wanting him to get a century every time he goes to bat.’’

Murali also felt although the game had changed it still required 20 percent talent, 20 percent technique but 60 percent mental toughness. His own challenge came from his focus on bowling to the Indian batsmen minus his main weapon. Interestingly, as he bowled in the nets at the Nondescripts Club in Maitland Place, Kumble was bowling in a practice match between India and the Max Academy. Two different styles, two highly competitive bowlers in action.