Best bowling analysis by a left-hander in a Test match innings

Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka) claimed nine wickets for 127 runs in 33.1 overs against Pakistan at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 15-16 August 2014 - the best bowling figures by any player in a Test match innings for more than 12 years. The slow left-armer's 14 wickets in the match, combined with the 15 wickets taken by Pakistan trio Wahab Riaz (six), Junaid Khan (five) and Abdur Rehman (three) and Sri Lanka's Chanaka Welegedara (one) meant that a Test record 29 of the 40 wickets in the match went to left-handers. The previous best bowling figures for a left-armer in a Test match innings was 8 wickets for 11 runs (all clean bowled), by Johnny Briggs (England) against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa on 26 March 1889. Briggs' match figures of 15 wickets for 28 runs are unmatched by a left-hander.

The previous record for wickets by left-handers in a Test match was 28, when South Africa hosted England at Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa, on 25-26 March 1889. The two-day match featured a total of 30 wickets (England won by an innings and 202 runs), including two run-outs, so all 28 wickets credited to bowlers went to left-handers: England's Johnny Briggs (15), South Africans Gobo Ashley (seven) and Charles Vintcent (three) and England's Arnold Fothergill (three).

The last man to take nine wickets in a Test match innings before Herath was Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, with nine wickets for 51 runs against Zimbabwe in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on 4 January 2002.

Herath was the 16th different bowler to take at least nine wickets in a Test match innings. Jim Laker (England), with 10 wickets for 53 runs on 27-28 and 30-31 July 1956, and Anil Kumble (India), with 10 wickets for 74 runs on 7 February 1999, are the only two players to have taken 10 wickets in a Test match innings.