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Sri Lankan off break bowler Muttaih Muralitharan came in for high praise after his dream English county championship debut for Lancashire with a match bag of 14 wickets against Warwickshire. The 'Lancashire Evening Telegraph' commended Muralitharan's brave effort at Southport though he ended up in the losing side.

``Muralitharan has already forged his own place in Lancashire history. The little Sri Lankan spinner added seven wickets in the second essay to the 7-44 he took in Warwickshire's first innings, giving him match figures of 14-110 - the best by a Lancashire bowler since brian Staham claimed 15-108 against Leicestershire at Grace Road in 1964,'' the paper said.

The report said that it was also the best-ever bowling performance in 39 first class matches at Trafalgar Road, beating Pakistan in Wasim Akram's 13 for 147 against Somerset in 1994. ``Not a bad home debut especially as it is also the first match when he has bowled for Lancashire, after last week's washout at Bristol. For the second day running Murali entranced the Southport spectators and bamboozled the Warwickshire batsmen. ``All of his wickets were either leg before wicket, caught by the ring of close fielders, or bowled - with Trevor Penney and Tony Frost losing their middle and leg stumps to beautifully flighted balls which turned sharply through the gate. And he celebrated in style - at a balti house just off Lord Street with coach Dav Whatmore. Yet despite Muralis' heroics, Lancashire lost the game by just 19 runs.

``Murali started to work his magic, in partnership with Peter Martin who claimed the crucial wicket of Knight and bowled a long, accurate supporting spell from the tennis court end. It was a treat to watch, with the promise of plenty more to come before Murali has to join Sri Lanka's national squad by early September.'' In the Warwickshire first innings, Muralitharan devastated Warwicks with figures of 34-5-16-44-7 to prove that he is the perfect choice as the overseas player for this season, even though Lancashire will only have him for about 10 weeks.

``Muralithran, who has bagged 203 Test wickets for Sri Lanka, was all smiles saying: ``I enjoyed it and I think the rest of the boys were happy, too. Lancashire coach Dav Whatmore, who was associated with the 1996 World championship Sri Lanka team in similar capacity of which Muralitharan was a key ingredient, added: On that pitch it was harder than he made it look, it will be interesting to see what happens when he bowls on a turning track.'' Whatmore sounded a warning said many more good figures are yet to be produced by the world's best off spin bowler who became only the second Sri Lankan Test cricketer to play English county cricket after Aravinda de Silva who played one season for kent with much success a few years back.

``Meanwhile, Lancashire chairman Jack Simmons has said that the presence of Muralitharan should give their side much needed confidence to pose a threat to batsmen. Lancashire obtained the services of Muralitharan as their overseas player of the season at the expense of Wasim Akram, who recommended the Lankan to Lancashire last year. Reports aid that Akram will stay in England this summer to paly for Smethwick and commentate for Channel 4., still has a house in Altrincham,'' the newspaper reported.