Cricket: MURA'S FIVE-TON TARGET

SRI Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took his 300th Test wicket yesterday - and set his sights on 500, eight more than the current world record.

Muralitharan took six for 39 in 10 overs as South Africa went for their shots at Kingsmead, Durban, before declaring at 140 for seven.

That gave Sri Lanka a target of 345 to win in 82 overs, but the match was drawn as bad light stopped play eight overs early.

Muralitharan reached 300 wickets when his fourth victim, captain Shaun Pollock, was caught at silly point.

Muralitharan, 28, said: "We are playing a lot of Test cricket nowadays. If I can play for another five or six years I can reach 500."

Muralitharan had match figures of 11 for 161, to take his total of Test wickets to 302. The world record of 492 is held by Courtney Walsh.

The spinner reached his milestone in the second lowest number of matches in history. He was playing in his 58th Test, two more than Dennis Lillee of Australia needed to reach 300.

Sri Lanka seemed to be in no danger of defeat, but two quick wickets by left-arm spin bowler Nicky Boje briefly gave the home side hopes of victory.

South Africa 420 (G Kirsten 180, D J Cullinan 59, L Klusener 50, M Muralitharan 5-122, R D Fernando 5-98) & 140-7 dec (M Muralitharan 6- 39) v Sri Lanka 216 (D P M Jayawardene 98, K Sangakkara 74) & 149-6. Match drawn.

-The one-off Test between New Zealand and Zimbabwe dwindled to an inevitable draw on the final day in Wellington, with the tourists shutting up shop when faced with a winning target of 301.

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