The fairytale that Rangana Herath scripted for nearly a decade is about to end. It has been a magnificent ride no doubt and the manner in which the champion outsmarts the best of batsmen has been a treat to watch, even in his penultimate series. He will have one last crack at England later this year before hanging up his boots.
It has been a roller coaster ride no doubt since Herath took up the role as Sri Lanka’s lead spinner in 2010 after the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan.
Many wondered how Sri Lanka would fare after Murali. But Herath has been a sensation, helping Sri Lanka script several famous wins.
When Kumar Sangakkara was elevated as Sri Lanka’s Test captain in 2009, he had some hard decisions to make. With Murali injured 48 hours before the Galle Test against Pakistan in 2009, the squad had a backup spinner in Suraj Randiv. Leg-spinner Malinga Bandara, who was 29 at that point would have been the ideal choice as the second spinner. However, instinctively Sangakkara thought that Herath, given his wealth of experience in domestic cricket, was better suited in the longer run.
It was a risk. A huge one at that. To start with, Herath wasn’t even in Sri Lanka. He was in England playing league cricket and he was 31-years-old.
Sanga called up Herath in England and the first thing he inquired from the left-arm spinner was whether he was fit enough to stand the rigours of Test cricket, that too against a side that played spin well. Herath answered in the affirmative and was told to fly down to Colombo.
He landed in the capital 24 hours before the Test match and in the pre-highway era, took the Galle Road to reach the team hotel and made his comeback the following morning.
Pakistan were set a target of 168 to win in the opening Test. They finished the penultimate day on 71 for two and needed a further 97 runs to go 1-0 up in the series. For a line-up that consisted Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Shoaib Malik, this would have been child’s play.
But Herath teased the batsmen with his guile the next morning to bundle Pakistan out for 117 and win the Man of the Match award.
Herath, who debuted in 1999 against the Aussies, had waited for his moment patiently and finally grabbed the opportunity, perhaps his last one, with both hands. Today, with 430 victims, he is among the top ten wicket takers in Test cricket and the highest among left-armers. The lesson that we can all learn is to never give up and play the waiting game until a break comes your way.
Kudos to Sanga for making the right call. Such a shame that his captaincy stint lasted for less than two years. Like Arjuna, who captained Sri Lanka for ten years, he deserved a longer break. But board room politics that stooped to such low levels with leaking of sensitive e-mails made him throw in the towel. To date, he remains the only Sri Lankan skipper to have won a series in Australia.
Over the years, Herath’s fan club has increased by many folds. One of the highlights of the 40-year-old’s career is spinning Sri Lanka to a famous and to date only Test win in South Africa in Durban in 2011. His hat-trick against the Aussies two years ago is another moment to cherish.
Herath is only a small man, but he has a big heart. One of the iconic images of the sport is the five foot five inches Herath staring at six foot six inches Mitchell Starc face to face, having evaded a bouncer.
Herath’s contributions with the bat hardly get the mention they deserve. They have all come when the going got tough.
The Headingley Test of 2014 was heading in the wrong direction and a first ever series win in England wouldn’t have been possible if not for Herath’s 48. He stitched a crucial 149 run stand for the eighth wicket with captain Angelo Mathews and that enabled Sri Lanka to set England a target of 350.
Two of his three Test half-centuries came on green tops when Sri Lanka’s batsmen had failed to show any fight. India produced a green top for the Calcutta Test last year and Herath top scored with 67 runs in a total of 294. He was batting at number nine.
Again, on a green top in Durham he made 61 two years ago when rest of the batsmen failed to cope with the extreme cold of northern England.
Herath’s career best came against India in Murali’s farewell Test. He had made an unbeaten 80 and could have gone onto accomplish a maiden Test hundred, a dream for any cricketer. However, Sanga declared the innings on 520 for eight denying Herath a rare landmark. Quite a few of Herath’s fans were angered at captain Sangakkara’s decision. Yours truly included.
