Rotund, slightly pot-bellied, and with a left-arm that delivers magic time and again, Rangana Herath has written himself into the history books in the simplest, yet most endearing way, becoming the first ever left-arm spinner to take 400 Test wickets.
Herath started off at the age of six, doing everything possible on the cricket field. He bowled fast, loved to bat, and tried a bit of spin as well. Finally, when playing Under-15 cricket, Herath was asked to focus on spin by one Mr. Lal Dinapurna. The foundation for a sleeping giant who would later take on, and often conquer, the world had been laid.
A decade ago, one question bothered all Sri Lankan fans. What is in store after Murali?
Rangana Herath put the doubts to rest. Since his comeback to the side in 2009, the left-armer has taken 369 wickets in 71 Tests at 26, and ensured Sri Lanka always had a storming wicket-taker to call upon.
Herath has been Sri Lanka's main match winner since July 2009, and he proved that by helping his side script a famous win, taking 11 wickets as Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in Abu Dhabi by 21 runs. He took six wickets in the second innings including last man Mohammad Abbas to complete 400 Test wickets, becoming the second Sri Lankan to do so.
The wily left-arm spinner was left delighted as he joined the 400-wicket club in Abu Dhabi. He also completed 100 wickets against Pakistan in 20 Tests when he took the fifth wicket. He is the first bowler to take a century of wickets against Pakistan, beating Indian paceman Kapil Dev who fell one short with 99.
Herath was delighted at reaching the milestone. “I’m so happy with the remarkable achievement of 400 wickets,” he said Herath after the match. “All credit should go to the people behind me, from my parents to the team and the supporting staff.”
Herath, who took 5-93 in Pakistan’s first innings of 422, admitted there was help from the pitch on which 16 wickets fell on the last day.
“There was some assistance from the surface. There was something for the spinners so I got this success,” he said.
Herath took 23 wickets against Pakistan in 2014 — a world record in a two-match series, and he said he had no clue why he was continually so successful against the nation.
“I have no idea. I’ve played nearly 20 Tests, maybe that’s why,” he said.
He is the second Sri Lankan to take 400 or more wickets behind Muttiah Muralitharan who is the highest wicket taker in all Test cricket with 800.
He also became the fourth fastest to the milestone behind Muralitharan (72 Tests), New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee (80 Tests) and South Africa Dale Steyn (80 Tests).

Sri Lanka's cricket authority said on Monday it will go ahead with its tour of Pakistan later this month for the third and final Twenty20 match despite security concerns expressed by several players.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said its executive committee agreed unanimously that the October 29 match in Lahore should go ahead as scheduled following reassurances of the best possible security.
The board said it “confirmed its commitment to play the third T20” in Lahore following assessments made by both Sri Lankan and Pakistan government authorities, independent security experts and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
“Accordingly, the selection committee of the SLC will finalise a squad of 22 by Tuesday and announce the final 15 on Friday,” the SLC said in a statement.
SLC chief Thilanga Sumathipala will accompany the team to Lahore, the statement added.
PCB Chairman Najam Sethi called it a historic moment and expressed his gratitude for the SLC president.
The October 29 match will be the first played in Pakistan by Sri Lanka — or any other top international team — since militants ambushed its team bus en route to the Lahore stadium in 2009, wounding at least seven players.
Doubts over whether the match would take place were raised over the weekend when some players expressed concerns for their safety and the board said it would review security reports, making a final determination on Monday.
Lahore will host the T20 series finale following several matches played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Pakistan have played their “home” internationals since the ambush.
Since 2009, the only international team to visit Pakistan is Zimbabwe, who played five limited-overs games in Lahore in 2015. But after Pakistan successfully staged the final of its domestic Pakistan Super League tournament in Lahore under heavy security this March, the country hoped international games could once again resume.
A successful series against a World XI team featuring top foreign players in Lahore last month further boosted calls for cricket to return to Pakistan.
Sri Lanka Cricket chief Sumathipala in August appealed for an end to Pakistan's isolation — a statement welcomed by Pakistani cricket officials — and urged countries to come to play. He recalled that several Test nations did not want to visit Sri Lanka at the height of the Tamil separatist conflict, when bombs were exploding in the capital in the mid-1990s, but Pakistan and India had toured Sri Lanka at the time.

Babar Azam hit a second successive century and Shadab Khan put up a strong all-round performance in Pakistan's 32-run victory over Sri Lanka in the second one-day international on Monday.
Azam scored 101 off 133 balls a day after celebrating his 23rd birthday while Shadab dug in to score 52 not out to lift Pakistan's total to 219-9.
Captain Upul Tharanga scored an unbeaten 112 and became the first Sri Lanka batsman to carry his bat in an ODI, before his team was bowled out for 187 in 48 overs.
Shadab outfoxed batsmen with his leg-spin to finish with 3-47 in yet another Sri Lanka top-order batting collapse.
Azam and Shadab featured in a century stand after Pakistan slipped to 101-6 against seamers Lahiru Gamage (4-57) and Thisara Perera (2-34).
Earlier, Imad Wasim followed Shoaib Malik and skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed to the pavilion after being judged lbw on Jeffrey Vandersay's ball. He scored 10 runs.
Mohammad Hafeez was caught behind on the last ball of the first power play for eight, right after he hit Gamage for a straight six.
Zaman was out for 11, caught in the slips facing Lahiru Gamage, bringing in the in-form Babar Azam. Ahmed Shehzad was able to make only eight runs before being caught trying to hit Suranga Lakmal for a four.

A new format brought a fresh approach from Bangladesh and welcome redemption for Mushfiqur Rahim, but it could not bring a different result. A week after a groggy Mushfiqur, fresh from being hit on the head by Duanne Olivier, was faced with awkward questions around his Test captaincy, he struck the highest score by a Bangladeshi batsman in any format against South Africa. His unbeaten 110 from 116 balls helped Bangladesh post 278 for seven, their highest ODI total against South Africa.
Yet things were put in perspective when Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla knocked off that total in just 42.5 ovars to lead South Africa to a crushing 10-wicket win in the first ODI in Kimberley on Sunday (October 15). Bangladesh were undoubtedly better than they had been in the Test series, but to see how short they still fell was rather alarming. With two more ODIs to come, this may be a series of marginal gains rather than a breakthrough overseas tour.
As one-sided as the game was, it at least provided some entertainment for the neutral while Bangladesh were batting. Unlike in the Test series, they had the courage to bat first after winning the toss, and the timidity that had plagued their batting in the longer format was cast aside and replaced by some adventurous strokeplay. It didn't always have a huge effect, with South Africa's bowlers using the short ball regularly, but at least there was intent.
Their innings was also about as measured as you could ask for. They scored 44 runs in the opening 10 overs, 51 from the next 10, and found themselves 150 for 3 after 30 overs, which looked a solid base. Ultimately they were let down by the fact that nobody other than Mushfiqur passed 31. On a pitch that was just on the slow side, they had to rebuild too often to accelerate in the latter stages of their innings. They were also thwarted by some clever bowling. While Mushfiqur, Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman all had the courage to charge the fast bowlers, they were often stopped in their tracks by looping bouncers that proved difficult to put away.
Mushfiqur's innings, though, was a joy to watch after his troubles the previous weekend. He started off by hitting straight down the ground, but gradually began to improvise with both the sweep and reverse-sweep. He could have been out on 41 when Imran Tahir trapped him lbw, but the umpire ruled bat before pad and South Africa failed to review. He duly went to fifty by running at Dane Paterson, who had a tough debut in place of the injured Wayne Parnell, to smoke him over extra cover for six.
While the other batsmen had some personal highlights - Mahmudullah charging Kagiso Rabada to crunch him for six being the pick of the bunch - none were able to persist in the way that Mushfiqur did. He reached his hundred in the 46th over, becoming the first Bangladeshi to score a hundred in any format against South Africa.
The warm fuzzy feelings amongst a healthy contingent of Bangladesh fans at the Diamond Oval dissipated as South Africa's innings got underway. While Bangladesh's batsmen had some bite, their bowlers were just as toothless as the Test unit - and proved unable to contain de Kock and Amla. Both batsmen batted at around a run a ball up until three figures before accelerating, with de Kock finishing on 168 and Amla on 110.
The only chances the duo did give were late in their innings - Amla being dropped on 94 by Taskin Ahmed in his follow through and de Kock put down on the boundary as he was looking to finish the game in a hurry. Otherwise it was a procession of records, with the pair registering their 10th century stand in ODIs and going on to record South Africa's highest partnership for any wicket in the format. For de Kock it was ODI century number 13, while Amla made his 26th.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 278 for 8 in 50 overs (Mushfiqur Rahim 110*, Imrul Kayes 31; Kagiso Rabada 4-43, Dwaine Pretorius 2-48) lost to South Africa 282/0 in 42.5 overs (Quinton de Kock 168*, Hashim Amla 110*) by 10 wickets.

Usman Khawaja has questioned Australia's chop-and-change selection policy for overseas tours, citing it as a deterrent towards his overall game development. The Queensland captain is in line to reclaim the No. 3 spot for the forthcoming Ashes series, but will go into the marquee clash with only one Test match under his belt in 2017.
Khawaja played in the New Year's Test at Sydney versus Pakistan but was then left out of the playing XI in the away series against India. The 30-year-old returned for the opening Test against Bangladesh later in the year before two single-digit scores in Mirpur sent him back to the bench for the series-levelling win in Chittagong.
After the frailties against spin, as Khawaja attempts to fortify his place in Australia's XI, he harbours disgruntlement about being overlooked over the winter. Khawaja believes the constant personnel change has created instability in the camp, citing as example David Saker's "little bit scared" comment from the India ODIs.
"They never used to do it before, I'm not really sure why they do it now," Khawaja told ABC Grandstand on Monday (October 16). "It creates a lot of instability in the team I reckon, going in and out for everyone. You hear things like 'the players are playing afraid' or what-not, but that's what happens when you drop players all the time. We've been doing that a fair bit lately.
"I know as captain of Queensland, I try and avoid that as much as possible; players I pick in the first game, I try to stick with them as long as possible, because they'll always be the best players on the park. For some reason it seems like lately in Australia, the best players always seem to be the next guy in, which I don't totally agree with."
The Ashes, beginning next month in Brisbane, is Khawaja's best chance to silence his detractors. That it will be played in the familiar climes of Australia - where he has struck four of his five Test tons since 2015-16 season - ought to be a big boost for the Queenslander. Incidentally, Khawaja has played an Ashes Test, during the 2010-11 series when he replaced an injured Ricky Ponting in the Sydney Test.
"[It is] very hard to develop your game and play some consistent cricket if you're not getting consistent opportunities overseas, which I haven't been getting," Khawaja said. It's frustrating but I've just got to focus on what's in front of me. I'd love to win an Ashes series - it's something I haven't been able to do yet."
Despite his own situation in away series, Khawaja believes Australia's makeup for the first Test will largely be along expected lines, as the hosts look to reclaim the urn. "There might be a few positions up for grabs depending on what happens in the [Sheffield] Shield games but I'm pretty confident they know what they're [selectors] expecting," he said.
"There was a big change last year, we brought in younger players, [Matt] Renshaw, [Peter] Handscomb came into the team, they did that to develop them over time, not to throw them in the deep end of the Ashes and those two have played really well. So I think they've been planning for this for a while. There's a fair bit of stability there."

Skipper Stafanie Taylor led from the front with an all-round performance as Windies defeated Sri Lanka by 40 runs in the third One Day International at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, Trinidad on Sunday (October 15) to clean-sweep the series in the second edition of the ICC Women's Championship. In a match reduced to 45 overs per side, the hosts posted a total of 182 for 8 with Taylor scoring a 83-ball 55. Taylor then starred with the ball along with Shakera Selman as both bagged three-wicket hauls to bowl out the visitors for 142.
The single-digit score in the opening ODI was the only failure for Taylor in the series, who otherwise was unstoppable with both the bat and ball. She picked up eight wickets in the three matches, including two three-wicket hauls to top the wicket-taking charts and also dominated with the bat, scoring two back-to-back half-centuries to finish as the highest run-scorer as she helped Windies complete a 3-0 clean-sweep of the ODI series.
Asked to bat first, Windies lost Kycia Knight in the fourth over but Hayley Matthews and Taylor ensured that Sri Lanka did not make further inroads until after the halfway stage of the innings. A watchful partnership worth 83 runs steadied the innings for Windies before Sri Lanka fought back with quick wickets. Matthews, Chedean Nation and Deandra Dottin fell in quick succession as Windies were reduced to 121 for 5 after 34 overs.
Merissa Aguilleira came to the rescue of Windies in the latter stage of their innings, scoring an unbeaten 37 off 43 deliveries that helped Windies finish with a total in excess of 180 despite losing a few more wickets. Shashikala Siriwardene was the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers as she finished with figures of 3 for 26 in 9 overs while skipper Inoka Ranaweera bagged two wickets and conceded only 24 off her nine.
Batting was a cause for concern for Sri Lanka in the earlier games and they looked unsettled for the third time in a row as Selman got rid of Nipuni Hansika off the first ball of the second innings before accounting for the dangerous Chamari Athapaththu. Yasoda Mendis and Dilani Manodara tried to stabilise the innings but all they could manage was to take Sri Lanka past the 50-run mark before Afy Fletcher struck to dismiss the former. Hasini Perera returned to the hut a short while later, leaving Sri Lanka reeling at 71 for 4.
Manodara and Rebeca Vandort came up with a fighting partnership to raise Sri Lanka's hopes. But their 30-run stand was ended soon after Sri Lanka crossed 100, causing another flurry of wickets. Vandort was the last ray of hope for Sri Lanka as she came up with a fighting 32. But her stay was cut short by Taylor, who cleaned up the tail with two more wickets as Sri Lanka's innings came to an end in the 41st over.
Brief scores: Windies 182/8 in 45 overs (Stafanie Taylor 55, Hayley Matthews 41; Shashikala Siriwardene 3-26, Inoka Ranaweera 2-24) beat Sri Lanka 142 in 40.4 overs (Dilani Manodara 42, Rebeca Vandort 36; Stafanie Taylor 3-29, Shakera Selman 3-32) by 40 runs.

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