It’s due to hard work says hero Herath

RANGANA Herath, a supposed relic of a bygone era, played the elder statesman for a revitalised and history-making Sri Lankan team that completed an emphatic clean sweep of Australia this week.

Herath, 38, the slow leftarmer with the teddy-bear frame snared 28 wickets – the third highest haul in a three-Test series against the Aussies.

Sri Lanka had only ever beaten Australia’s Test team once, in 1999, when Herath was in the squad but not the XI.

And after a long career in Muttiah Muralitharan’s shadow, not even the great man could have matched Herath’s magical 13-wicket haul in Colombo to tie up an almost preposterous 3-0 victory following their poor tour of England.

“There’s no secret, just a lot of hard work,” said Herath.

“We had a tough time for seven to eight months, we stayed together, we knew we were one win away. And when we won in Pallekele, we just kept going.”

There were other heroes in Colombo, as Dhananjaya de Silva (129) – who debuted during the series – made his first Test century in a superb partnership with Dinesh Chandimal (132).

Shaun Marsh (130) and Steve Smith (119) matched those efforts, despite Herath’s 6-81, and Australia even took a 24-run lead into the second innings before falling apart.

Kaushal Silva’s 115 underpinned Sri Lanka’s 347-8 declared. In reply, only David Warner (68) made a score of note as Herath raced to seven more wickets in the 163-run win.

Another ignominious defeat saw Australia slip from the top to No.3 in the ICC Test rankings – leaving captain Smith to admit they were simply outclassed.

“We’ve been outplayed in every facet,” he said.“It’s been very tough. That’s our third straight whitewash loss in the Sub-continent. What we are doing isn’t working.”