He's the 38 year old marketing clerk at Colombo's Sampath Bank who orchestrated Australia's shock loss in the opening test and Rangana Herath isn't finished.Ranked a distant seventh in the world (just above the West Indies and Bangladesh), Sri Lanka's test team were considered no-hope of toppling the first ranked Australians coming into the series. Not only does Australia benefit from a superior test record and playing roster, we are also a first world country meaning we have the luxury of pouring hundreds of million dollars into player coaching, resources and development.Just because we can, Australia also poached Sri Lanka's greatest ever cricketer, also test cricket's all-time leading wicket taker, Muttiah Muralitharan to coach our batsmen against Sri Lanka's spin attack.
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It didn't work, with the 38 year old bank-clerk, Rangana Herath teaming up with spin-twin, Lakshan Sandakan to take 16 wickets on their way to a shock 106 run victory.With the second test getting underway yesterday, Sri Lanka have been sent into bat on another dusty pitch set to favour sub-continental spinners."I have a very good record in Galle, but I have to start from scratch when the game gets underway on Thursday and stick to my basics," said Rangana."We are expecting Australia to come hard at us."Beating the No. 1 team is always special. It will remain in my memory forever."Obviously we beat them after 17 years. Before this, I had played in eight games against Australia without winning any."
