Muttiah Muralidharan is honoured by teammates after he captured his 521st victim on the third day of the first Test against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday

Harare, May 8 (AFP): Sri Lanka cruised to victory in the first Test against Zimbabwe here on Saturday defeating the hosts by an innings and 240 runs in a match which made history as spin wizard Muttiah Muralidharan set a world record for Test wickets.

Muralidharan took the 520th Test wicket of his career when he removed Mluleki Nkala to break the mark of 519 set by Courtney Walsh, who set his record also against Zimbabwe.

He then caught and bowled Alester Maregwede with his next delivery but his chance of a hattrick was interrupted as he hurt the index finger on his right hand in taking the catch.

Muralidharan left the field for treatment, and bowled with a bandaged finger on his return.

A weakened Zimbabwean side collapsed in their second innings to 102 all out having been bowled out for 199 in their first innings in reply to the tourists’ massive score of 541.

It was mid-afternoon on the third day when Muralidharan persuaded Nkala to give a catch to Mahela Jayawardene at forward short leg. The moment was one for a big celebration. The umpires stood aside and let the jump-for-joy group of Sri Lankans have their long moment.

Muralidharan took a second wicket with which to begin building a lead over Shane Warne, his great rival, who stands on 517. Muralidharan left the field to an archway of bats, held aloft by Zimbabweans as well as his teammates and the Sri Lanka officials.

The match was won at a canter by Sri Lanka.

Their innings of 541 runs was 240 runs more than both Zimbabwe innings of 199 and 102 put together. It was a one-sided match as expected, mainly because Zimbabwe were forced to field a weak and inexperienced side due to the dispute between senior white players and the ZCU.

Sri Lanka began the day on 456 for seven. Chaminda Vaas was quickly out but Farveez Maharoof, Nuwan Zoysa and Muralidharan scored 40, 28 not out and 26 respectively, to send the Sri Lanka total soaring to 541, which was always going to be well out of reach of Zimbabwe.

The home side were five wickets down for 18 runs at one stage, sending the statisticians searching for the lowest Test score in history — 26 by New Zealand against England in 1954-55.

Just as in the first innings, when he toppled the home batsmen, Nuwan Zoysa repeated and improved his performance and figures. He took five wickets for 20, easily his best in Test cricket and his first five-wicket haul. His match figures were nine for 73.

Without Muralidharan’s feat, his would have been the story of the day.