Herath ten-for puts Zimbabwe on the brink

HARARE: Rangana Herath registered his second five-wicket haul in as many days as Sri Lanka closed in on victory in the second Test against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club on Wednesday.

Herath followed up his five-wicket haul in the first innings with 5 for 45 in the second as Zimbabwe, set 491 to win, went to stumps on the fourth evening on 180 for seven.

Three days between Tests is hardly enough for teams to work on their weaknesses. But this was Zimbabwe’s opportunity to prove they had learnt from their mistakes from the first Test or at least the first innings here.

Rangana Herath, Sri Lanka’s stand-in captain who on Monday became just the third bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan and Dale Steyn to complete five-wicket hauls against all Test nations, picked five wickets to leave Zimbabwe in a spin.

Along the way, he became the first bowler to take 50 wickets in 2016. Chasing an improbable 491, set about by Sri Lanka’s declaration on 258 for 9 midway through the second session, they slumped to 180 for 7, with first-innings half-centurion Craig Ervine and Donald Tiripano at the crease.

The first three wickets fell in identical fashion: batsmen pressing forward and playing either outside the line or inside the line without any conviction, almost like they were searching for the ball without quite reading the trajectory. The deliveries that got Brian Chari and Hamilton Masakadza were arm-balls, while another flighted delivery one spun away from the rough to take Tino Mawoyo’s edge off a tentative push to Dhananjaya de Silva, moving low to his left.

Sean Williams decided the best way to score runs was to step out to the spinners. On the day, he was lucky that a couple of mishits landed safe. But even in stepping out, the visible difference was there were no half-measures, like he exhibited in fetching a slog sweep off Dilruwan Perera from outside off over deep midwicket. Having weathered the early storm against spin, he paid the price for relaxing against the pacers; an ugly waft away from the body resulting in a thick edge to first slip off Lahiru Kumara.

Flight wasn’t the only component of spin that troubled Zimbabwe. Dhananjaya de Silva, handed the ball perhaps just to shake things up after Dilruwan kept getting picked off for runs, had a wicket in his second over when Malcolm Waller went for an expansive drive, much like he did in the first innings, to a ball that drifted away to take the edge through to the wicketkeeper.

Not even the loss of five wickets in the session curbed the instincts of Zimbabwe’s batsmen. Peter Moor kept going after the bowlers and struck them well for as long as he was around, before jabbing with hard hands to be caught at short leg. Then came perhaps the ball of the innings when Herath got one to drift-in and spin away to square Cremer up and hit the stumps. It was quite fitting that the special delivery delivered his seventh ten-wicket haul in Tests.

Meanwhile, Ervine, it appeared, was batting on a completely different tangent, playing deliveries on merit while taking toll of the half-trackers. Unlike in the first innings, they will need him and Cremer, who brought up a maiden Test ton in the first Test, to carry on for as possible to at least ensure their margin of defeat isn’t identical to the first Test.

The first session was attritional, with Sri Lanka happy to take their time to grind Zimbabwe. Resuming on 102 for 4, they added 75 in the first session to leave Dimuth Karunaratne facing the prospect of bringing up his fifth Test ton. Asela Gunaratne, the other overnight batsman, made a sparkling 39, driving from the rough and playing with a degree of authority, before falling lbw to Tiripano on 39. Sri Lanka’s intent to up the scoring after in the second session was evident from the outset. Given a license to attack, in line with his natural game, Kusal Perera was in the mood to frustrate Zimbabwe as he swept, swiped and reverse-swept his way to a half-century off just 61 balls to swell Sri Lanka’s second-innings total.

Suranga Lakmal too helped himself like he would in a buffet, picking away leg stump half-volleys and half-trackers to the boundary in an entertaining 47-run ninth-wicket stand off just 37 deliveries. Herath declared when Kusal holed out to long-on for 62, thereby giving themselves a day-and-a-half to dismiss Zimbabwe. Going by Zimbabwe’s travails against spin, Sri Lanka’s bowlers may have just earned themselves close to day’s rest on Thursday to go with a 2-0 sweep that looks set to go into Herath’s captaincy book barring for thunderstorms on the final day.

Score Board

Zimbabwe won toss

Sri Lanka 1st innings 504 dec (de Silva 127, D Gunaratne 116; D Tiripano 3-91)

Zimbabwe 1st innings 272 all-out (B Chari 80; H Herath 5-89)

Sri Lanka 2nd innings 258 dec (F Karunaratne 88; A Cremer 4-91)

Zimbabwe 2nd innings

T M K Mawoyo c de Silva b Herath  15

B B Chari b Herath    8

H Masakadza lbw b Herath   10

C R Ervine not out     65

S C Williams c Mendis b Kumara     45

M N Waller c M D K J Perera b de Silva      0

†P J Moor c Mendis b Herath 20

*A G Cremer b Herath         5

D T Tiripano not out  0

Extras (b 4, lb 5, w 3)         12

Total (7 wickets; 45 overs)  180

To bat: C T Mumba, C B Mpofu

Fall: 1-16, 2-32, 3-39, 4-113, 5-114, 6-166, 7-176

Bowling: Lakmal 11-2-47-0; Herath 16-3-45-5; M D K Perera 6-1-27-0; Kumara 9-0-42-1 (1w); de Silva 3-0-10-1

Umpires: S D Fry (Australia) and I J Gould (England). TV umpire: M Erasmus (South Africa). Match referee: B C Broad (England)