Muttiah Muralitharan's matchwinning eight-wicket haul against India has rocketed into the Wisden 100 list of the greatest Test bowling performances at No. 40. Muralitharan's 8 for 87 achieved a Wisden 100 rating of 204.6 points, just enough to dislodge Trevor Bailey, of Essex, England and Test Match Special, from the top 40. Bailey's 7 for 44 against West Indies at Lord's in 1957 rated 204.4 on the Wisden scale.

Every bowling performance from 40 to 100 now moves down one, and the man to suffer is Harbhajan Singh, who had a miserable series as Murali's opposite number on the Indian side. Harbhajan's 7 for 133 against Australia at Chennai earlier this year was at No. 100, but has now dropped out. The new No. 100, waiting for the axe, is JM Gregory's 7 for 69 for Australia against England at Melbourne in 1920-21. Harbhajan can console himself with the knowledge that he remains in the Wisden 100, at Nos. 14 and 72=, with two of his other performances against the Aussies.

Murali had a helping hand from his team-mates in the Sri Lankan middle order, who racked up a total of 600 and made sure that the game was classified as a batsman's match.

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