Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath in conversation with President Mahinda Rajapaksa when the champion team was felicitated at Temple Trees on Tuesday.
Following Sri Lanka’s splendid triumph in the World T-20 over bitter rivals India, players with flamboyance have earned all the accolades. Kumar Sangakkara was outstanding during the run chase, Lasith Malinga was brilliant during the death overs while Thisara Perera’s monstrous hitting helped Sri Lanka to win with ease, but the contributions of left-arm spinner Rangana Herath have gone unnoticed.
After being benched for Sri Lanka’s first three games, the 36-year-old was brought back for the must win clash against New Zealand in Chittagong. The experienced campaigner helped Sri Lanka to a sensational 59 run win with some tight bowling.
“I didn’t have much pressure, but I was reluctant. It was virtually a quarter-final and then we only had 119 to defend. I realized that we can’t contain them with such a total and the only way to win the game was by bowling them out. We had planned that I was going to come to bowl in the first six overs. Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor, New Zealand’s two key players, had not scored runs against me even in Tests,” Herath told The Island yesterday.
Herath was unplayable. He teased the Kiwis with turn and guile and his first two overs were maidens. More importantly in that period of mayhem he had picked up three wickets including those of McCullum and Taylor. Herath finished with five wickets for just three runs.
“Until we won the World T-20 a couple of days later, that was the most unforgettable moment in my career,” Herath said.
Herath has been the victim of some weird selection decisions over the years. He was the hero when Sri Lanka won the World T-20 semi-final in 2012 against Pakistan. Yet he was inexplicably dropped for the final against West Indies. The decision looks even more bizarre as he was dropped for the little known Akila Dananjaya.
That wasn’t’ the first time Herath was denied a place in the final. Rewind to the ICC World Cup in 2011. Herath bowled his nine overs in the semi-final against New Zealand for just 31 runs and for the finals four days later in Bombay he was dropped! As that brilliant thinker Kumar Sangakkara once put it, like God, selectors all over the world act in mysterious ways.
“Getting dropped from the side is nothing new for me. You feel sad. All cricketers want to be involved in a World Cup final. But I took them in good spirit. You have to understand what the team thinks. They are choosing the best eleven to play a particular opposition. However, I thought that I will play the final in 2012 because I had bowled really well in the semi-final. They were setbacks, but I am used to it,” Herath said.
Herath said after losing four major finals, the team had renewed confidence after winning the World T-20 and next year’s ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be the team’s next target. “We have got some confidence that we never had before. It’s the same thing with all the players. With this confidence we need to go forward and get ready for the World Cup. This team has lot of potential.”
Herath thankfully remembered the coaches, who put in lot of effort behind the scenes. “There are lot of coaches whom we should be grateful for. Not only those in the coaching staff of the national team, but the entire coaching staff at Khettarama. They don’t go on tours, but they have contributed a lot for our success,” Herath said.
