Herath a match turner
Anushka Withanage
At the age of 31, Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Herath who has briefly
seen on the scene then disappeared to reappear from the blues into the
Sri Lanka cricket team, could be likened to a circus man who had
performed magic with the ball whenever he showed up.
|
Rangana Herath
in full cry |
Certainly, Herath has been like a magician making the Galle
International Stadium which is his happy hunting ground as the slow
left-arm orthodox spinner accounted for a great show to send Pakistan
crashing to defeat in the second Test match, snatching an improbable win
for Sri Lanka from the jaws of defeating the first Test match a
fortnight ago.
It was by a freak chance that Herath got his break to play when
champion spinner Mittiah Muralitharan had to skip the match through
injury.
And didn’t the lad, who had looked like never again donning the Sri
Lanka cap since he last did so almost 4 years ago, make the most of it
to spent Sri Lanka to a thrilling victory.
Not only did the lad from Kurunegala save the day for Sri Lanka, he
also saved the day for his skipper Kumar Sangakkara who was in his
maiden appearance for his country as captain.
Interesting, Herath shot to prominence in 1999 with ‘mystery ball’
against Australia in 1999 that darted the other way.
Since, he hovered on the fringes of the Test squad for sometime,
regularly representing the ‘A team before being recalled for the third
Test against Australia in Colombo. He was a passenger on the tour to
Australia, but against Pakistan in 2004-05, he displayed his talent
bowling slowly through the air, flighting the ball to claim 11 wickets
in two Tests.
He was recalled to the Test squad for the tour of West Indies after
nearly 3 years in the cold, but that was one opportunity that he did not
come into the limelight. But the selectors did not lose faith in
Herath recalling him to fill the void created by Muralitharan’s pull
out against Pakistan for the first Test against Pakistan in Galle where
he claimed 4 key wickets to break the back of Pakistan’s batting from a
strong position of an overnight 70 for 2 wickets needing 173 for victory
to be bowled out for 123.
Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10
Tests 15 27 3070 1485 41 4/15 7/132 36.21 2.90 74.8 5 0 0
ODIs 6 5 234 149 5 3/28 3/28 29.80 3.82 46.8 0 0 0
First-class 165 - 31225 13834 589 8/43 - 23.48 2.65 53.0 0 31 5
List A 95 - 3973 2612 125 4/19 4/19 20.89 3.94 31.7 3 0 0
Twenty20 17 15 331 319 24 3/14 3/14 13.29 5.78 13.7 0 0 0 |
