Herath becomes best left-arm spinner
Rangana Herath has been Sri Lanka’s biggest matchwinner since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan. The leftarm spinner has been pivotal in the team’s success in the last couple of years and on the final day of the Galle Test against Bangladesh, Herath created history.
When Herath dismissed Liton Das to put Sri Lanka on course for a victory, he became the most successful Test left-arm spinner. Das’ wicket was the 363rd wicket for Herath, taking him past the 362 -mark set by New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori. He ended with 366 wickets. Herath went on to take 6/59 as Sri Lanka bowled Bangladesh out for 197 to complete a 259-run win.
This was Herath’s 29th fivewicket haul, the most among leftarm bowlers. In the list of bowlers with five-wicket hauls, both left and right, he is joint-fifth with Australia’s Glenn McGrath.
Herath also has the most 10-wicket hauls in Tests by a leftarm bowler (7).
Herath is only the second leftarm spinner to go past 350 wickets. Herath is second in the alltime list of left-arm bowlers, with Wasim Akram leading the pack with 414 wickets in 104 Tests.
During the Test series against Zimbabwe in 2016, Herath became only the third bowler in Tests to take a five-wicket haul against every nation.
Dale Steyn of South Africa and Muralitharan are the only others to have achieved this feat.
Herath continues his love affair with Galle.
In 16 Tests, he has picked 93 wickets at an average of 22.97 with nine five-wicket hauls and three 10-wicket hauls. Muralitharan has the most wickets at the venue, with 111 wickets in 15 games at an average of 18.5.
Before this record, Herath played a stunning role during the series against Australia where he picked 28 wickets in three Tests to help Sri Lanka inflict a 3-0 whitewash on Australia.
It was their first series win against Australia after 17 years.