In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and as of September 2014 only 42 bowlers have taken 15 or more five-wicket hauls at the international level.
Contents
Rangana Herath (Sinhalese: රංගන හේරත්) is a Sri Lankan cricketer. A slow left arm orthodox bowler and a left handed batsman, he made his Test debut at Galle International Stadium, Sri Lanka against Australia in 1999. His One Day International debut came 5 years later in 2004, against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Ground, Zimbabwe. Herath is currently ranked as the number three test match bowler in the world. Although Herath made his test debut back in 1999, he came to prominence as a leading spinner until the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan. As of March 2017, Herath has 29 five-wicket hauls in Test matches and one in a T20 International, ranking him joint eighth among all-time combined five-wicket haul takers (joint with Dale Steyn), and second in the equivalent list for Sri Lanka, behind Muralitharan. Herath's best bowling figures are 9/127 against Bangladesh in 2014; this was only the 18th time in Test cricket history that a bowler has taken 9 or more wickets in an innings. Herath's best T20I figures of 5/3 are the third best ever in T20 Internationals.
Herath has completed five-wicket hauls against every other Test playing nation. He achieved this feat on 8 November 2016 during the 2nd Test match against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club, by taking five wickets for 89 runs. He was the third bowler to do so after Muralitharan and Dale Steyn. On 11 March 2017, Herath surpassed 362 Test wicket by Daniel Vettori, to become the Best left-arm spinner in test cricket history.
Test Five-wicket Hauls
Source: Correct as of 10 November 2016.
Twenty20 International 5-wicket hauls
Source: Correct as of 30 January 2015.