Prodigious spin propelled by an abnormally strong wrist and an iron resolve forged in bitter acrimony over his unique action took Muttiah Muralitharan to unprecedented heights in world cricket.

Muralitharan, 38, took his 800th Test wicket with his final ball in 133 Tests on Thursday. Muralitharan was hoisted aloft by his teammates at Galle stadium in Sri Lanka after Indian batsman Pragyan Ojha was caught from Muralitharan’s final ball of his 18-year Test career.

With Twenty20 cricket cutting increasingly into the Test programme it is a mark that is unlikely ever to be exceeded.

Muralitharan, son of a confectioner from Kandy and a member of the embattled Tamil minority, believes his best Test figures 16 for 220 at the Oval in 1999 remain his career highlight.

The one-off Test against an England side that had just beaten South Africa in a series was an unforgettable snapshot of his wondrous powers of flight and spin and the parallel emergence of Sri Lanka as a world force.

An hour before play began on a sunlit final morning, Muralitharan warmed up in the middle under the guidance of his impressive captain Arjuna Ranatunga. By late afternoon, Ranatunga, Muralitharan and their team mates were celebrating a 10-wicket victory. Only a runout denied Muralitharan all the England second innings wickets.

“It was a mental trial beyond comparison,” wrote one of the England openers Steven James recently. “There was no physical threat, just an umremitting battle against a bowler of supreme accuracy and stamina, with pace and degrees of turn being varied almost imperceptibly.”

Muralitharan’s triumph followed an oblique but unmistakable message from England coach David Lloyd on the previous evening. “I have my opinions that I have made known to the authorities,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd’s remarks were triggered by Muralitharan’s standard delivery, which at first glance appears to break the fundamental rule of bowling, namely the obligation to deliver the ball without bending and then straightening the arm.

Australian Darrell Hair no-balled the Sri Lankan seven times for throwing in the 1995 Melbourne Test.

Ten days later, Muralitharan was no-balled repeatedly by Roy Emerson in a one-day international. In January, 1999, Emerson called him again in Adelaide.

Muralitharan, taunted by the Australian crowds whenever he took the ball, announced he would never tour Australia again and seriously contemplated retirement.

He decided instead to fight back with the support of the Sri Lankan board and his career was rescued by the International Cricket Board (ICC).

Extensive tests concluded that Muralitharan’s action “created the optical illusion of throwing”.

After the controversy continued to rumble, further tests revealed that all contemporary bowlers, and therefore logically all bowlers before them, flexed their elbows to some extent. A maximum allowance of 15 degrees for both pace and spin bowlers was agreed. Because of an elbow deformity, Muralitharan’s arm remains bent in action.