Rangana Herath becomes the second highest left arm wicket taker

Veteran Sri Lankan spinner Rangana Herath with the wicket of Alex Hales on day 2 of the first Test match between Sri Lanka and England went past Derek Underwood’s record for most wickets in Test Cricket by a left-arm spinner.

English left armer Derek Underwood, who was famously known as ‘deadly,’ has 297 wickets to his name. Rangana currently has 298 wickets under his belt in 67 matches in his career span of 16 years. He is now the second highest left-arm wicket taker just below former New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori (362).

Currently, the senior-most bowler in the side, Herath has shouldered the Lankan spin bowling burden in the post-Muralitharan era.

Herath seems to be in good form. During the practice match against Leicestershire, Herath was the only productive bowler, taking two wickets at an economy rate of 1.63. He also had an adventure with the bat, scoring a fifty when Sri Lankan middle had a crisis situation against the home team. He scored 55 runs, sharing a 174 run stand for

He also showed his batting skills, smashing a fifty batting in the lower order and rescuing his team from a crisis situation. Together with, Dasun Shanaka, he contributed 55 runs in the 174 run stand for 8th wicket.

Herath has done his bit in the ongoing first Test at Headingly. The 38-year-old picked 2/25 in his 11.3 overs spell, helping his team bundle out the hosts for 298 runs in the first innings.

Sri Lanka, however, is currently in a murky situation. Batting in reply, they are reeling at 43/3 after James Anderson and Stuart Broad gave early blows to them.