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.
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