Top 10 cricketing rivalries of all time

#3 Brian Lara vs Muttiah Muralitharan

Lara was one of the very few batters that asserted himself against Murali

It is believed that there are only two batsmen who outplayed Muttiah Muralitharan in his elite test career. One was England's Graham Thorpe and the other was Brian Lara. After a monumental series against Australia in 1999, Lara had a dip in his form where his average fell below 50 and he was started getting criticism from all corners.

Then came the Sri Lanka tour of 2001. Lara scored three hundreds in that series and the way he played, sorry, annihilated being a more apt word, Muralitharan in that series made his status even more legendary in the game. Murali was in the peak of his powers back then but against Lara, arguably the most effective player ever against spin bowling, he was often found ineffective.

Darren Ganga, Lara's teammate on that tour later revealed that the southpaw had researched on the Lankan extensively and even called Lara's batting in that series as his most remarkable feat. The batsman himself conceded that playing against Murali was one of the toughest tasks of his career and during the first hour or so against the spinner, he usually had no idea how to deal with his deadly abilities with a cricket ball.

The Lankan dismissed Lara five times in his career but the southpaw averaged a commendable 56.80 against him. Murali had a test career to savour which also included dismissing Sachin Tendulkar 13 times but the smiling assassin will always have one regret of not dominating against a certain Trinidadian.

A classic knock.