IT was a bleak day at Kandy's Asgiriya Stadium. Dark clouds threatened all afternoon, and then a brief spell of rain sent the Lankan cricketers, towards the end of their training session on the eve of the second Test, scurrying to the pavilion.
One man ran faster than the rest. In fact, he streaked through from one corner of the ground to the other, leaving his much younger team-mates gasping.
A sprint that was symbolic of Muralitharan's another race - towards Courtney Walsh's World record of 519.
For a man who is averaging around seven wickets a Test over the last two years, Murali, with 340 scalps in 65 Tests, could accomplish the feat in another 24 months, and he would still be only 31.
The improvement in his strike-rate has been dramatic as well, his first hundred wickets spread over 28 Tests, his second arriving in just 14. And in 23 matches subsequently, he has 140 more!
The Lankan is supremely fit and if he carries on for five more years - a distinct possibility - his tally of wickets would be close to 700. That's a truly mind-boggling figure.
But then, Muralitharan's bowling travels way beyond mere numbers. It's more about a man's passion for his craft, his strength of mind to tide over the hurdles, his exciting bag of new tricks sharpened by long hours of practice, and his ability to send down marathon spells, seldom tiring, relentlessly probing the batsmen.
All these glittering qualities were on view during the recent Test series where Murali left the Indians bamboozled, mixing his deliveries wonderfully well, scalping 23 batsmen. A dangerously deceptive adversary with a unique wrist action.
It's this added variety that has made him such a formidable customer over the last four years, as compared to the pretty one-dimensional bowler he was at the beginning of his career.
Indeed for Murali Mark I, the huge off-break was the principal weapon of destruction, while Murali Mark II has a superb repertoire.
The delivery spinning away from the right-hander, the one straightening into him, a top-spinner, subtle variations in flight, changes in pace, control over the extent of turn, and the occasional leg-break .... Murali is more than a handful for most right-handers.
Cutting the Lankan wizard against the spin is hazardous, and when the batsman aims to drive him on the off-side, Murali can castle him through the gate.
He is remarkably consistent too, serving very few loose balls, even when he delivers over after over on a hot day. "I enjoy bowling. I seldom get tired," he says.
And even on those rare occasions, when he does come in for punishment, Murali is never ruffled and his favourite line is, "You got to be patient."
Like a vulture that will eventually swoop down on its prey, Murali waits and waits before he strikes. A quality Lankan coach Dav Whatmore admires.
" The real challenge for a bowler is how well he comes back into the game after being unsuccessful early. He needs to have the desire like Murali," observed Dav, one of shrewdest minds in the business.
Today Murali is a phenomenon in world cricket, easily the most dangerous off-spinner. "He's without peers in contemporary cricket," Indian coach John Wright said and he should know.
Just how does a batsman counter Murali? Sourav Ganguly noted it should be positive play. "The idea should be to use your feet against him. Make him change his length. The more you see of the ball, the better are your chances against him."
What Ganguly meant was forcing the offie to bowl short, which is easier said than done for Murali is perfectly capable of deceiving his opponent in the air when he is given the charge.
Against the norms, Murali is more comfortable bowling to the right-handers, but this doesn't suggest he is cannon fodder for the southpaws. Far from it, he's actually winning quite a few battles against them.
Poor Sadagopan Ramesh. He was past his fifty and looking good for a few more in the third Test, when Murali consumed him with a devilish delivery that whipped across him from a shade outside the leg-stump and clipped the off bail.
Later the Tamil Nadu batsman said, "With Saqlain Mushtaq, if the delivery is flighted, it generally is the one that drifts the other way, with Murali you can never tell."
And Murali keeps working on the batsmen, forcing them to commit the fatal error. He got Rahul Dravid on the leg-glide at Colombo and snared both Ramesh and Badani on the drive outside the off-stump in the same Test.
Given his astonishing ability to turn the ball on any surface, Murali is always a threat, but, if there is even a hint of assistance to the spinners, he becomes doubly dangerous. Just an element of first day bounce at the SSC was enough for him to rip through the Indian line-up.
Given his extraordinary skills, Murali is unfazed by the prospect of bowling on green-tops - the Lankans want to prepare a strong pace attack keeping the World Cup in mind - and actually looks forward to the challenge.
Interestingly, Murali, who hails from Kandy, began his career as a medium pacer, who mainly sent down off-cutters before his coach at St. Anthony's Sunil Fernando advised him to switch over to off-spin. And that meant sleepless nights for the batsmen!
In his journey to Walsh's mark, Shane Warne, depending on his fitness, could emerge the biggest rival, and Murali knows this. Their careers have actually run parallel, Murali making his Test debut at the Premadasa Stadium in '92, the second Test of an eventful series against Australia.
And in the first Test, Warne had conjured his first match-winning display for Australia, as Allan Border's men nailed a thriller by 16 runs. Since then, Murali, overcoming career-threatening hurdles, has taken giant strides into the Hall of cricketing greatness.
Floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee, Murali, now, is indeed the King in the realm of off-spin. Or should we say 'all spin'?
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