Hero Herath.....

What an extraordinary performance in the first Test by the men from the land of the big wide smile.

Pakistan sauntered into the stadium at Galle on Tuesday requiring a mere 97 runs for victory with 8 wickets in hand. The track had been impressive for the first 3 days and had provided little encouragement for the spinners which was in complete contrast to previous encounters at this venue. All expected the seamers to operate with a relatively new ball at the start of play. New skipper Kumar Sangakkara had other ideas.

Rangana Herath was tossed the cherry and asked to operate from the Fort end.

He himself would have found that surreal as it was only a matter of days before that he was wheeling away for Staffordshire in the UK midlands. Three days before the start, he surprisingly received an urgent SOS as Muttiah Muralitharan pulled up lame and was scratched due to a patella injury that demanded rest. Following a scramble to meet flight schedules, Rangana eventually arrived in Galle with just hours to spare. He benefited enormously initially from a day of rest as Sri Lanka batted on day one and the debilitating cobwebs of jet-lag eased their way out of his system.

Herath has been the forgotten spinner over the years and has had little chance to display his skills and cement a permanent slot in the Lankan line-up. Murali and his potency covered all the spin bases and enabled Sri Lanka to field only one tweaker for years. More recently a mystery spinner by the name of Mendis exploded onto centre stage forcing Rangana even deeper into the selection shadows. Herath's international future looked bleak and he was an innocent victim of being born at the wrong time. Relative obscurity and a career toiling at club level in the UK beckoned. His efforts in the opening Test were rewarded with the Man of the Match trophy following a heroic 4 wickets for 15 runs on the last morning that promoted a Pakistan panic attack of epic proportions.

Sadly for Rangana, although his recent performance has elevated his stocks, the riches of spin that exist on this island will still inhibit and restrict him.

It must be emphasized that he was ably assisted on this occasion by an extraordinary batting implosion from Pakistan that defied logic and belief.

That aside, how fulfilling for Herath and all the similar battlers out there that he got his day in the sun at Galle.