Herath dozen seals series victory

Career-best figures of 12 for 157 from spinner Rangana Herath carried Sri Lanka to a resounding seven-wicket win – and one-nil series triumph – over Bangladesh on day four of the second and final Test at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday.

Career-best figures of 12 for 157 from spinner Rangana Herath carried Sri Lanka to a resounding seven-wicket win – and one-nil series triumph – on day four of the second and final Test at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Bangladesh's push for a 250-plus lead, as professed by batsman Tamim Iqbal overnight, amounted to nothing more than 160, leaving the hosts a reasonably straightforward pursuit on Tuesday.

Herath, only the seventh bowler to achieve a match haul of 10 or more wickets on his birthday, completed the initial damage – thanks to a second-innings seven-for.

The host batsmen, again saved from a considerably worse score by captain Mushfiqur Rahim's resilience, had little answer to the veteran 35-year-old's prolific performance.

Surpassing 200 wickets amid the capitulation, the third Sri Lankan to do so after former spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and erstwhile seamer Chaminda Vaas, Herath resigned the visitors to an insufficient 265 all out.

An air of inevitability graced Tuesday's result. Bangladesh's stamina in the series opener in Galle was gradually upended by a thoroughly professional Sri Lankan unit – entirely familiar with conditions in Colombo.

The hosts' reply was uncomplicated, though visiting seamer Robiul Islam and spinner Sohag Gazi managed three consolation breakthroughs between them. Opener Tillakaratne Dilshan, meanwhile, rectified his first-innings duck with a swift half-ton.

Former captain Kumar Sangakkara, added to three consecutive centuries with a solid 55 – enough to take him beyond 400 runs in the series for the second time against Bangladesh.

The left-handed Lahiru Thirimanne and all-rounder Angelo Mathews were ultimately at hand for the final partnership of the match, with the former striking the single needed for triumph – and the latter gifted his first series win as full-time captain.

Herath was rightly named man-of-the-match, while Sangakkara landed the Player of the Series accolade. The teams will soon meet for three ODIs, the first of which gets underway in Hambantota on Saturday.

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