MUMBAI: When the fit-again great Lankan offie Muttiah Muralitharan returns to Test cricket, he will miss one known face and a great partner in crime. Chaminda Vaas, who retired from Test cricket on Friday and Muralitharan, have tormented many a great batting line-up in tandem. Together, they devoured 1,125 batsmen.

Together, they did to the opposition what Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne did; which was to get wickets for the other by holding one end up.

"He’s a true legend of the game. To get over 350 wickets in Tests and more than 400 in ODIs isn’t an ordinary feat. He showed that if you have swing and are on target, you do not need express pace to succeed in international cricket," Muralitharan said from Colombo.

Murali and Vaas played in 95 Tests together and picked 586 and 309 wickets respectively. While the stats don’t really reflect the effect that Vaas had on Murali’s bowling when the two bowled in tandem, Murali did not hold back in praising the left-arm-seamer.

"Look at his stats and see the number of top-order players he has dismissed. Most of his wickets are top-order players. He was also a good containing bowler. I can remember many occassions when a team was going great guns and the captain, be it Arjuna, Sanath, Marvan or Mahela, brought me and Vaasy on. With Vaasy blocking one end up completely, it was easier for the captain to set attacking fields for me. I got many of my wickets thanks to him slogging tirelessly from one end. And remember he bowled mostly on pitches that were thankless for seam bowlers," the 36-year-old offie said.

While Muralitharan got all the accolades, Vaas’s efforts almost went unnoticed. "The headlines always said Murali picked up so many wickets. But not many people gave credit to Vaas’ efforts and the impact he had on my spell. In a way, he was an unsung hero."

Vaas inspired a generation of fast bowlers, who took to left-arm pace bowling. Nuwan Zoysa, Sajeewa De Silva, Thilan Thushara are some of them. "Yes, there are many right-arm pacers too who saw him as their hero. Prior to him, there was no pacer who played for such a long period. Vaas played for over 15 years and he was bound to have an impact. I hope other quickies get inspired by him and emulate his success," Murali said.