Herath's 13-wicket haul sinks Australia

Celebrating Nikini Full Moon Poya, the Sri Lankans had a national holiday on Wednesday (August 17). With the possibility of the national cricket team inflicting a whitewash looming large, a number of people made their way to Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo to witness history.

The three-match Test series came to a close when Nathan Lyon attempted to go for another sweep, but failed to connect the ball and was trapped in front of the wicket. The umpire had little hesitation in lifting his finger. But the batsman, to delay the inevitable, went for a review. As it turned out, there was little reason for Angelo Mathews and Co. to keep the celebrations on hold.

The music was loud, the wind instruments and percussions in sync as a bruised legend rattled the number one Test side in the world to hand his team a 163-run win on the fifth day of the third Test.

Just a few days before the start of the series, Steve Smith was handed the Test Championship Mace. At that point, Australia were ranked No. 1 in Tests, he hadn't lost a single Test as a captain, Adam Voges averaged 95.50 with the bat and the exploits of Dhananjaya de Silva, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan merited little mention.

But as it panned out, a lot of records tumbled and a many a stories were written. The scoreline may suggest a 3-0 win for Sri Lanka, but the series exhibited an engaging battle between the two sides for most parts of it. Through the course of the three-match series, the Sri Lankan cricket board earned Rs 7 million in ticket sales.

Earlier in the day, there was a debate whether Sri Lanka were being wise about delaying the declaration when de Silva and Suranga Lakmal came out to open the innings; whether the fear of 2-1 scoreline took over the temptation of a series whitewash? But as it turned out, in less than a session, they took the last nine Australian wickets to bowl them out for 160.

De Silva and Suranga Lakmal scored 35 runs in 4.3 overs before Mathews decided to declare the Sri Lankan innings at 347 for 8.

Set to chase 324 for a consolation win, with a minimum of 83 overs left in the day, Australia began their charge slowly, managing only nine runs off the first six overs. Warner kept his shots in check, much like Marsh who offered a more confident straight bat in defence.

With a couple of close-in fielders waiting for edges to pop out of his dead-bat defence, the Australian vice-captain soon decided to resort to his natural game. Once he started stepping out of his crease, he drove Rangana Herath through covers off the first ball of the seventh over and followed it up with a punch through the same region off the last. The couple of boundaries forced Mathews to remove the man stationed at silly point.

Marsh struggled in the middle - huffing and puffing his way through the 66-ball stay - and kept calling out for liquids after every two overs. Even as his struggle didn't show in the batting, he was time and again visibly disgusted with his shot selection.

Once Warner found his groove, he continued attacking the bowlers, albeit in a more calculated manner than his first innings show. He had done enough to put the pressure back on the hosts.

The pressure showed up in the 18th over when Dilruwan Perera came over the wicket to Warner. The left-hander padded the first two deliveries, extending his front leg to the line of the ball. The third time he padded, the ball lobbed up and Mathews pouched it to his left in slips. The skipper was convinced that the batsman had gloved the delivery and took a review. However as replays showed, the ball was far from the bat as well as the gloves on the way to the fielder.

Sri Lanka lost their second review too, off the next ball, when Perera managed to hit Warner's pads. The on-field umpire gave the decision in favour of the batsman, but the bowler was convinced to ask his captain for another review. Yet again, with the ball pitching just about outside the leg-stump, the third umpire stuck with the original decision. In two balls, Sri Lanka had lost both their reviews.

Till one over before the Lunch break, Warner and Shaun Marsh were decimating the hosts with the counter attacking play. They had put on 77 for the opening wicket - the only half-century stand of the series, before the latter edged a delivery to forward short leg. Kusal Mendis took a superb reflex catch at the stroke of Lunch to leave the visitors at 77 for 1.

Like so many times it happened in the series, yet again, it was one wicket which paved way for an Australian batting collapse. Herath struck twice in his third over after the break - dismissing Smith and Adam Voges. While the Australian skipper was beaten for pace while looking to punch the ball off the backfoot, Voges was trapped leg before wicket after he failed to pick up the line.

However, it was the wicket of Warner three overs later that ended Sri Lanka's worries. The left-handed opener was the only batsman to dominate the Sri Lankan bowlers on the final day. He attacked and padded with confidence on way to his half century. With Dilruwan Perera coming over the wicket and pitching the ball outside Warner's leg-stump line, the left-hander chose to keep padding it. When he did choose to leave, the ball ended up disturbing the timber from round his legs.

It took only 88 more deliveries for Sri Lanka to wrap up the remaining line-up - six falling to Herath and one courtesy a fine piece of fielding by Mathews. The victim of Sri Lankan skipper's run-out was Moises Henriques, who yorked himself while coming down the track to Dilruwan and ended up getting an outside edge to Mathews at first slip. While the ball bounced just in front of the fielder, he quickly picked it up and managed a direct hit before Henriques could return to the crease.

Mitchell Marsh, who was one of Australia's better players of spin, ended up getting deceived in the most conventional way possible. Herath floated a delivery and managed to turn it away from the batsman. The ball kissed the edge of the bat on its way to the wicketkeeper.

The incompetancy of the Australian batsmen to play spin kept getting exposed with the fall of every wicket. Six overs later, it was Peter Nevill who top edged a sweep shot off Herath to give Mathews his second catch of the match.

Lyon, who walked in to bat at No. 9, resorted to his favourite shot - the sweep - and executed it well most times he played it. He exhibited his sweeping skills off the very first ball, playing it for a boundary through the cow corner. Mathews was quick to pack the leg side boundary with three fielders to not allow easy runs for him.

Meanwhile, Starc did whack a six and a couple of boundaries in his brief stay, but much like Nevill, he ended up getting a top edge while looking to play a slog sweep. The ball popped up in the air, teasing four fielders towards it. Nonetheless, in the end, Kusal Perera caught it cleanly to hand Herath his second fifer of the match.

Two overs later, Hazlewood's nine-ball resistance too came to an end as was beaten by Hearth's spin, before Kusal whipped off the bails. Lyon departed off the next ball to end Australia's dreadful run in Sri Lanka.

Herath, who battled groin pain, finished with seven wickets in the second innings and 13 in the match. His Man of the Series effort included 27 wickets - most by him in a Test series.

With this defeat Australia have slipped to No. 3 in the ICC Test Rankings, while Sri Lanka have climbed to the sixth position.

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 355 and 347 for 8 (Kaushal Silva 115; Dhananjaya de Silva 65*, Dinesh Chandimal 43; Nathan Lyon 4-123, Mitchell Starc 2-72, Jon Holland 2-72) beat Australia 379 and 160 (David Warner 68; Rangana Herath 7-64, Dilruwan Perera 2-71) by 163 runs.