Graeme Smith praises Muralitharan

New Delhi:

South African cricket captain Graeme Smith was quick to congratulate Muttiah Muralitharan shortly after the spin bowler took his 800th Test wicket.

In a post on social networking site Twitter, Smith said: "Murali 800 test wickets!!!!brilliant.great test career and a really good man.glad I don't need to face him in test cricket again:)."

Muralitharan, who has more Test and one-day (515) wickets than any bowler in history, will retire from Test cricket after the match.

Muralitharan's controversial bent-arm action -- the result of an elbow deformity since birth -- helped him impart considerable turn and bounce to wreak havoc with the ball.

The 133-Test veteran claimed five wickets in an innings an astonishing 67 times, almost double the hauls of second-placed Australian Shane Warne, who achieved this on 37 occasions.

Muralitharan took 10 wickets or more in a Test 22 times. Warne, who follows the Sri Lankan in the all-time list with 708 wickets, managed that only 10 times.

The Sri Lankan's record haul of 800 Test wickets is unlikely to be broken in the near future. Among bowlers still playing Test cricket, India's Harbhajan Singh leads the pack with 355 wickets and New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has 325 wickets.