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Dilruwan Perera and Rangana Herath formed one of the most successful spin combinations for Sri Lanka between 2015 and 2019
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
There is a saying that fast bowlers hunt in pairs; so do spinners, they bowl in tandem.
One of the finest spin combinations that Sri Lanka had between 2015 and 2019 was between legendary left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and off-spinner Dilruwan Perera, who announced his retirement from international cricket on Wednesday at the age of 39.
After the retirement of celebrated spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka had to bank on Herath and Perera for their success at Test level, and the pair didn’t fail. In 21 Tests they played together in the four-year period, they took 233 wickets between them at an average of 27.39 and bowled their country to seven series victories out of 12. Herath took 145 wickets and Perera 88 as they complimented each other from either end. Herath retired in 2018 playing his final Test against England at Galle with a haul of 433 wickets, making him the most successful left-arm spinner in Test history. Strangely enough, Perera played the last of his 43 Tests also against England in January last year finishing with 161 wickets at an average of 35.9.
Speaking to Daily FT, Herath, who has come on a short holiday from Bangladesh to be with his family, said he owed a lot of his success as a bowler to Perera being his spin bowling partner from the opposite end.
“In the Tests we played together we had an understanding and a partnership with each other that when he built up pressure from one end it became easy for me to bowl and take wickets, both of us had that advantage,” said Herath.
“As a finger spinner, he had accuracy of almost 100%, he hardly bowled any loose balls or freebies. He was a bowler who could maintain accuracy. When you look at the overall picture it is good for the team as well because as a bowling unit we talk about partnerships. He had options to take wickets and to contain runs. He was a bowler who could adjust to any situation. That’s how I see him as a bowler.”
“The other thing I noticed about him is that whenever we make a plan, he is one who will patiently carry it out without being hesitant. As a bowler you must have variations that are a must. But more importantly, it is how far and for how long you can have the patience to bowl a line and length consistently. Dilruwan had that ability, he had natural variation, some balls turned, and he also had an arm ball that went straight. There is no point in having those variations if you cannot bowl at one spot. His biggest plus point was that he had the ability to do that for long periods of time.”
Herath said he rated Perera a match-winner although his figures don’t reveal so. He had two ten-wicket match hauls and eight five-fers in Tests – figures that hardly come close to those displayed by Muralitharan and Herath.
“If you take the number of matches he has won and the number of times he has taken ten-for in a match you can gauge that he is a match-winning bowler. I can still remember in 2016 against Australia we played three spinners Dilruwan, Sandakan and me. In the first Test, Sandakan and I took wickets, and in the second Test, Dilruwan won it for us scoring a fifty and taking ten wickets,” said Herath.
“Anyone can say that he got only a few opportunities but every opportunity he got he has played his best to win. He is a cricketer who never complains. He could be asked to bowl with the new ball or with the old ball or open the bowling with the new ball, I have never seen him complain when asked to perform a task.
“He was a fine team player who had a lot of patience, and bowled a number of match winning spells. His greatest asset as a bowler was his accuracy. Test cricket or white-ball cricket, he could bowl according to the line and length.”
Perera was no mug with the bat; he was more than a useful batsman. He began his Test career scoring a patient 95 off 247 balls at number eight and ended with seven Test fifties out of the 1303 runs he scored. He also appeared in 13 ODIs and 3 T20Is.
“When he played for the one-day team, he was basically an opening batsman, but in Test cricket, although he scored 95 on his Test debut at Sharjah, he was picked in the team as a bowler. It was a big plus point for the team that he could bat so well.
“On a number of occasions, in addition to his bowling, he has contributed with the bat to win matches for us,” said Herath, who has signed a new two-year contract with the Bangladesh Cricket Board till 2023 as their spin bowling coach.
With the advent of young spinners like Lasith Embuldeniya, Praveen Jayawickrama and Ramesh Mendis, perhaps it is the right decision for Perera to make after not being in the national selectors’ radar for the past three years.
Dilruwan Perera’s achievements in Test cricket
