Murali plays the straight man to break Test wicket record

Sri Lanka's 35-year-old master spinner surpassed Shane Warne's tally of 708 in the morning session against England when he bowled Paul Collingwood, to spark jubilant scenes at the Asgiriya Stadium.

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Fire-crackers were lit, flags were waved and a swarm of schoolchildren danced with delight under the scoreboard after the local hero struck to surpass his perennial rival from Australia. Within an hour, packs of commemorative stamps were being circulated.

For a while, the hordes who had arrived to celebrate the landmark were made to wait, as Collingwood and Ryan Sidebottom dug in effectively, forcing Sri Lanka to take the new ball. Murali was briefly pulled out of the attack, but he soon returned to finally get his man, with a ball which — ironically — did not turn.

There had been a chance that the wicket would fall Down Under during last month's two-Test series against Australia. But the grinning Tamil was denied by the dominant home batsmen and revealed that it was probably a blessing in disguise.

'This was a great moment for me because it happened in front of my wife, my parents, my brothers, my cousins — everyone was here watching me,' said Murali.

'Breaking the world record here was special because from the age of 15 I played so many matches in this ground for my school — St Anthony's College.

'This is the place where I got my 100th wicket in a season for my school, when I was 19 years old. So it is a special moment to get the record here and that is why I couldn't get many wickets in Australia, because it had to happen here, in my home town.'

Collingwood was astonished that the landmark ball travelled in a straight line. 'It is obviously an amazing feat but it's not nice to be the victim of the record wicket,' he added. 'He is a legend in the game and so difficult to play against.

'I forgot all about the record. But when I heard the ball hit the stumps and the fireworks go off, I knew it was something special.'

Murali revealed that Warne had sent a message of congratulations to him the previous evening — when taking the record was a mere formality — via Sir Ian Botham. He had already broken the record once before when it was held by Courtney Walsh of the West Indies, but this time he is hoping the accolade of being No 1 could be his for some time to come.

He said: 'When Warne was still playing and I always said, "Whoever plays longer will have the record". He stopped after the last Ashes and I am still going. Perhaps if India captain Anil Kumble plays for longer than me he can get the record. Otherwise, it might be around for a long time.'

The tourists were in the wars on Monday. Kevin Pietersen was excused fielding duty after suffering a small crack to the little finger of his right hand the previous day. But he will bat in the second innings, if required.

Matthew Hoggard was struggling with a stiff back throughout the day and Alastair Cook gained an angry lump under his right eye courtesy of a mis-field.

Hats off from Warne

'Well done. Murali's been a wonderful player for a long time. He's an excellent competitor and has been great for Sri Lankan cricket. He's a great bloke too. I went to Sri Lanka to help him after the tsunami and we now even have a trophy named after the two of us.' Shane Warne