Herath takes over as no-Murali Lanka win by 201 runs

Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 201 runs on the final day of the first Test on Sunday to complete a second successive victory without key spi...

Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 201 runs on the final day of the first Test on Sunday to complete a second successive victory without key spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

After setting Pakistan 418 runs to win in the first match of a two-Test series, Sri Lanka dismissed the home side for 216 runs from 79.2 overs 40 minutes after lunch.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, playing in his sixth Test, returned career best figures of 4-64 to finish with match figures of 7-132.

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Pakistan lost their last three wickets after lunch for 46 runs after resuming on 170-7. Shoaib Malik was the top scorer with 59 from 177 balls.

The victory was Sri Lanka’s sixth in nine Tests in Pakistan and their seventh overall.

Pakistan resumed on 114-4 with the difficult task of having to play out 83 overs to save the game.

Herath triggered a batting collapse with two wickets in two balls after the overnight pair of Yousuf Youhana (44) and Malik had added 40 runs to the total in 17 overs and 75 minutes. They put on 63 runs for the fifth wicket from 205 balls before Herath caught Youhana in front with a fine arm ball.

Brief scores

Sri Lanka:
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243 (T Samaraweera 100; S Akhtar 5/60, M Sami 4/71) and 438 (S Jayasuriya 253, K Sangakkara 59, M.Jayawardene 57; D Kaneria 4/117) beat Pakistan: 264 (Y Hameed 58; R Herath 3/68) and 216 (S Malik 59, I Farhat 53; R Herath 4/64, D Fernando 4/77)