If we are talking about the great spinners in international cricket history then the name Rangana Herath must be in the conversation because he is one of the greatest test match spinners of all time and the second greatest spinner to ever play for Sri Lanka with over 400 Test wickets. We will talk about his incredible records below and also look at his Top 5 Best bowling performances.
Rangana Herath has played 93 Test Matches for Sri Lanka and in those 93 Test Matches he has taken 433 test wickets which is more than 4 wickets per match and he got them at an average of 28.08 with 34 Five wicket hauls and 9 times he has taken 10 wickets in a test match. He played test cricket from 1999-2018 where it was stop and start for a few years and then it was all him at the end years of his career. Let’s look at his Top 5 Best bowling performances.
9/127 and 5/57 vs Pakistan (2014)
Rangana Herath was at the peak of his career during this time and this is the single best bowling performance of his career be it in an innings or in a test match. He almost became one of the 4 men to take all 10 test Wickets in an innings. In the first Pakistan batting innings he bowled for 33.1 overs and took 9 out of the 10 wickets in the innings and gave 127 runs and then in the 4th innings he again picked up a 5 wicket haul and it allowed Sri Lanka to win this test match by 105 runs against a good Pakistan team.
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5/68 and 7/89 vs Bangladesh (2013)
This is also one of the best performances in the career of Rangana Herath and it came in 2013 where in the first innings he took 5 wickets for only 68 runs in just 28.3 overs and then in the second batting innings he got 7 wickets for just 89 runs and again got 12 wickets for the match and Sri Lanka won this match easily by 7 wickets in the end. This was the era of Rangana Herath and Sri Lanka was better for it.
6/74 and 6/97 vs England (2012)
This performance against England is one of his best because it came against a very good team which had beaten India in India. So, to get 12 wickets in a match against them is a great performance. During the first batting innings he picked up 6 wickets In the England innings which bowled out England for just 193 and then in the all important 4th innings of the test match ne bowled 38 overs and again picked up 6 wickets for 97 runs and as a result Sri Lanka won that match by 75 runs and it was a great win for them.
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6/81 and 7/64 vs Australia (2016)
The next performance that we will talk about is this incredible performance by Rangana Herath against Australia in 2016 where he got 13 wickets in the match. Australia were batting in the 2nd innings and Rangana Herath was the only bowler who troubled the Aussies as he got 6 Wickets in the innings and did not allow Australia to get a big lead. Then the 4th innings master Herath took 7 wickets for just 64 runs in only 18.1 overs and in the end Sri Lanka won this test match by 163 runs and again Rangana Herath was the hero for Sri Lanka.
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5/93 and 6/43 vs Pakistan (2017)
This is the 5th and final performance of Rangana Herath that I will be talking about and it was his last 10 wickets haul in a test match and what a thrilling match to do it in. Pakistan were batting in the Second innings and on a flat pitch it was the spin bowling of Herath who got 5 Wickets in this innings and Pakistan could only take a 3 run lead and then in the 4th innings as usual he stepped up again for Sri Lanka and Pakistan while chasing 136 got bowled out for only 114 and Rangana Herath took 6 for 43 in 21.4 overs and Sri Lanka won a close match by 21 runs and the savior Rangana Herath delivered again.
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