Top 5 match-winning performances from Rangana Herath
Rangana Herath, the stocky, smiling banker from Sri Lanka keeps producing one match-winning performance after another for Sri Lanka. The left-arm spinner is a diminutive presence on the field but when that cricket ball fizzes out of his fingers, they are potential weapons which have the ability to dismantle the opposition.
Ask the Australians, well they are left licking their wounds after Herath combined with Dilruwan Perera humiliated them in the recently concluded Test match. The Australians are now staring at another whitewash in Asia, and if current form of Herath is anything to go by, this result can very well transpire over the next week.
Herath who assumed prominence only after the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan has become one of the trump cards for Sri Lanka, and he is a menacing object in home conditions. And is a very likeable character too, he keeps smiling and combines it with a terrific work ethic.
Although, it is very difficult to gauge the importance of Rangana Herath only in numbers, here in this list we take at 5 of his top bowling performances in a match.
#1 Sri Lanka vs Pakistan, SSC, 2014
This was the farewell match of one of Sri Lanka's greatest ever batsman, Mahela Jayawardene, and Rangana Herath made sure that it would be a memorable one.
The match itself was a see-saw affair, as both Pakistan and Sri Lanka could only be separated by a Rangana Herath spell late on the fourth day.
Batting first, Sri Lanka posted 320 in their first innings. In reply, Pakistan too scored 332 runs.
Rangana Herath stole the show in the first innings as he picked up as many as 9 wickets in the innings.
Trailing by 12 runs, Sri Lanka managed to put up a decent score of 282, and thus Pakistan had to chase down a target of 271 runs, on a slow and sluggish SSC track.
However, Pakistan were thrown to the mat when they lost 7 wickets in the afternoon session and were reduced to 127/7 by the end of Day 4. Herath took 4 wickets, and then added another one on the fifth day.
He finished with 14 wickets in the match.