Now the stage was set for Mathews – and Herath – to perform an epic feat or perish in the attempt. The Collins English Dictionary states an epic as; “an episode in the lives of men in which heroic deeds are performed or attempted.
When the Headingley Test between England and Sri Lanka began on the fourth day, with the tourists still looking down the barrel, having only a slim lead of 106 runs, there were speculations amongst many whether the match would end by the end of the day in favour of England!
The total was 214/4. Veteran Jayawardena (55*) on his last tour to England, and skipper Mathews (24*) were at the crease with the England pace quartet of Anderson, Broad, Plunkett and Jordan threatening to blow the brittle Sri Lankan balance batting away. Indeed, within the next 63 runs, the Sri Lankan scoreboard read a dismal 277/7.
Only Mathews remained as a specialist batsman, with the three wickets falling – including that of Jayawardena (79) – within a space of nine runs, and the threadbare tail embarrassingly laid bare.
In walked left-handed Rangana Herath to join his captain. Herath’s batting record from the year 2012 would not create any confidence in the minds of even the most ardent Sri Lankan fan. In the previous 25 Test innings, he had aggregated a pathetic 125 runs with a highest score of 14* runs. Figures that do not inspire any confidence, especially when Sri Lanka was having only a slender lead of 169 runs and heaps of time – including the whole of Day 5 – for England to wrap it up.
Of course, the strange and unexpected can happen in this wonderful game of cricket – and so it did.
Now the stage was set for Mathews – and Herath – to perform an epic feat or perish in the attempt. The Collins English Dictionary states an epic as; “an episode in the lives of men in which heroic deeds are performed or attempted. Well, Mathews, whilst farming the strike at appropriate times, did so with a superlative innings of 160 runs, and along with Herath (48), put on a record partnership of 149 which enabled Sri Lanka to have a healthy lead of 349 runs. Paceman Dhammika Prasad then stunned the England batsmen, at the end of the day with a 4-wicket burst that left the bemused England batsmen in tatters at 5/52 with Herath chipping in by dismissing night-watchman Plunkett.
However, on Day 5, the England batsmen led by centurion Moeen Ali, who had also represented Sri Lanka’s Moors Sports Club, nearly thwarted the tourists until the penultimate delivery of the game, when a screaming delivery by Eranga nearly took James Anderson’s head off, resulting in a gentle catch to Herath.
Strange, the umpires did not re-check, whether Eranga had overstepped the line!
The tired and relieved Sri Lankan fielders simply exploded! For the first time they had won a (2-match) series 1-0. There must have been some celebrations that night by our boys – and deservedly so.
This magnificent innings by Angelo Mathews can be compared to any of the three played by Australian batsman Stan McCabe (1910 – 1968). The first was an innings of 187* vs. England during the infamous Bodyline series in the 1932/33 season at Sydney. Next it was an incandescent innings of 189* Vs South Africa at Johannesburg in 1935 when the fielding side appealed for light since the audacious strokes made by McCabe were physically too dangerous for the fielders! It was the first and only occasion in the history of Test cricket that such an appeal was made. Finally, in 1938 at Trent Bridge Vs England in the Ashes series he made an astounding innings of 232.
Here’s how his captain described this particular innings: “McCabe scored 232 out of 300. Towards the end, I could scarcely watch the play. My eyes were filled as I drank in the glory of his shots. No less than 44 runs came off Wright in three overs and finally, with the boundary studded with fieldsman, he scored 72 runs in 28 minutes…Such cricket I shall never see again, nor shall I ever feel competent adequately to describe this elegant display… when Stan returned to our dressing room at the conclusion of the epic performance I was so moved by the superb display of his innings that I could scarcely speak. However I gripped his hand… he was trembling like a thoroughbred racehorse. I can recall saying to him after expressing my congratulations. “I would give a great deal to be able to play an innings like that. “No skipper was ever more sincere in his adulation of another’s skill.”
The name of McCabe’s skipper was Don Bradman!
