Herath, Mirando destroy Pakistan

Sri Lanka snatch victory from the jaws of defeat:

Chris Dhambarage Reporting from Galle

Sri Lanka spearheaded by a career best effort from Rangana Herath staged a tremendous fight back to pull off a remarkable 50-run victory over Pakistan with more than a day to spare in the opening Test match concluded at the Galle International Stadium yesterday.

Pakistan who started the day needing 97 runs to win the game slumped to 117 runs their lowest total against Sri Lanka in the space of 26 overs. This success had a great amount of significance as this was Sri Lanka’s first win at this venue since 2002 and also marked Kumar Sangakkara’s first Test as captain.

In fact the manner in which Sangakkara handled the pressure was quite outstanding after his team had been somewhat outplayed during the first three days of the match. But he marshalled his troops in a professional manner and delivered the final blow to take a vital one nil lead in the three match series. No one impressed than Rangana Herath and Thilan Thushara Mirando who were purely responsible for turning a certain defeat into a memorable victory.

Left arm spinner Herath who was brought into this game as a replacement for the injured Muralitharan returned career best figures of 4 for 15 from 11.3 overs.

In fact Herath showed early signs of running through the Pakistan middle order by removing Mohammed Yousuf in his very first over of the day. His first seven overs really made the difference where he also snapped up the wicket of Salman Butt while conceding only eight runs.

Herath came back into the attack after two unsuccessful overs from Nuwan Kulasekera and went on to add the finishing touches in great style. He received excellent support from Thilan Thushara Mirando who certainly deserved more than his two wickets in the second innings.

The left arm fast bowler was able to create plenty of doubt in the minds of the Pakistan batsmen as they were beaten on several occasions. He had the key wickets of Shoaib Malik and wicket keeper batsman Kamran Akmal during a hostile spell of eight overs and conceding only 12 runs.

Thushara got the ball to move both ways while seaming it away and swinging it in. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara studied the situation perfectly where he employing in-and-out fields and not conceding boundaries or singles to the opposition.

In between Tillekeratne Dilshan produced a flash of brilliance behind the stumps to run out Misbah ul Haq and was always outstanding having taken over the glows in place of the injured Prasanna Jayawardena. (Galle, Tuesday).

SCORECARD

	Sri Lanka innings 292 
	(T.Paranavitana 72)
	Pakistan innings 342 
(M.Yousuf 112, N.Kulasekara 4-71)
Sri Lanka second innings 217
Pakistan second innings 
(overnight 71-2)

K. Manzoor c Jayawardene b Mendis 	 15
S. Butt c Paranavitana b Herath 	 28
Y. Khan lbw Mathews 			 03
M. Yousuf lbw Herath 			 12
M. ul-Haq run out 			 07
S. Malik c Dilshan b Thushara 		 00
K. Akmal lbw Thushara 			 06
A. Rauf c Jayawardene b Herath 		 13
U. Gul b Mendis 			 09
M. Aamer c Dilshan b Herath 		 06
S. Ajmal not out 			 01
Extras (13-b, 3-lb, 1-w) 		 17
Total (all out, 44.3 overs) 		117

Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-39, 3-71, 4-72, 5-72, 6-80, 7-85,
		8-95, 9-110, 10-117.

Bowling: Kulasekara 7-1-25-0, Thushara 12-4-21-2 (1-w),
	Mathews 4-0-13-1, Mendis 10-0-27-2, Herath 11.3-5-15-4.
Result: Sri Lanka won by 50 runs.