Rangana Herath became Sri Lanka’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests after the left-arm orthodox spinner went past Chaminda Vaas’ tally of 355 wickets during the second Test against South Africa at Cape Town. Only the legendary Muttiah Muralitharan (800) now has more Test wickets than him for Sri Lanka. (SCORECARD)
Herath, who achieved the feat in just 77 Tests, has been in a staggering form for Sri Lanka since the England tour and has been taking wickets on a consistent basis.
His best performance recently was against Australia. In the series, he picked up 28 wickets at an average of 12.75 to set up a historic 3-0 whitewash for Sri Lanka. Before the start of the series, the Lankans had beaten Australia just once in 33 years of cricket between the two nations. But Herath changed that scenario as he ran through the Australian batting line-up almost at will.
He took seven wickets on the final day of the third Test adding more misery for the team that had arrived as the No 1 side but slipped down to three by the end of the series. The annihilation brought by Herath earned him both the man-of-the-match and the series.
Leading the side against Zimbabwe last year, Herath became the third bowler in the history of the game to take a five-for against every Test-playing nation. He ended the series with 19 wickets, bagging the man-of-the-match award in the second Test. He also broke another record in the process — becoming the first captain since Kapil Dev in 1985 to take eight wickets in an innings.
{{/usCountry}}Leading the side against Zimbabwe last year, Herath became the third bowler in the history of the game to take a five-for against every Test-playing nation. He ended the series with 19 wickets, bagging the man-of-the-match award in the second Test. He also broke another record in the process — becoming the first captain since Kapil Dev in 1985 to take eight wickets in an innings.
{{/usCountry}}He also became the second quickest spinner to take 350 wickets behind Muralitharan and the sixth-fastest overall. Muralitharan had achieved the feat in just 66.