HMRKB Herath of Sri Lanka with his six for 81 in Australia’s first innings in the ongoing Col-SSC test took his tally of wickets against Australia to 59. He now has the record for most wickets by a Sri Lankan bowler against Australia. He went past M Muralitharan’s aggregate of 54 wickets which was the hither to record by a Sri Lankan bowler against Australia. HMRKB Herath and M Muralitharan are the only two Sri Lankan bowlers to have captured 50 plus wickets against Australia. The following table shows the performance of these two bowlers against Australia. M Muralitharan’s one test performance representing ICC Eleven against Australia is excluded. He had returned with match figures of 54.0-8-157-5 in this test

SERIES WISE FIGURES OF HMRKB HERATH AGAINST AUSTRALIA
Series	Mat	Inns	Overs	M	Runs	W	Ave	5	10
1999	2	2	069.3	16	195	6	32.50	0	0
2003/04	1	2	047.2	6	167	4	41.75	0	0
2011	2	4	126.0	22	368	16	23.00	2	0
2012/13	3	5	134.4	16	407	12	33.91	1	0
2016	3	5	126.5	38	293	21	13.95	2	0
Total	13	18	504.2	98	1430	59	24.23	5	0
SERIES WISE FIGURES OF MURALITHARAN AGAINST AUSTRALIA
Series	Mat	Inns	Overs	M	Runs	W	Ave	5	10
1992	2	4	073.1	12	225	4	56.25	0	0
1995/96	2	2	092.0	10	348	3	116.00	0	0
1999	3	4	141.1	24	349	15	23.26	1	0
2003/04	3	6	209.1	37	649	28	23.17	4	1
2007/08	2	3	116.0	09	400	4	100.00	0	0
Total	12	20	631.3	92	1971	54	36.50	5	1

HMRKB Herath’s six for 81 in this test represent his fifth five wicket haul against Australia. He now shares the record for most five wicket hauls by a Sri Lankan bowler against Australia with M Muralitharan. The five wicket hauls by these two bowlers are furnished below. HMRKB Herath and M Muralitharan are the only two Sri Lankan bowlers who have five five wicket hauls against Australia

HMRKB HERATH’S FIVE WICKET HAULS AGAINST AUSTRALIA
No	O	M	Runs	W	Inns	Opposition	Ground	Start Date
1	23.0	3	79	5	3	v Australia	Galle	31 Aug 2011
2	52.0	11	157	7	3	v Australia	Col-SSC	16 Sep 2011
3	21.5	2	95	5	3	v Australia	Hobart	14 Dec 2012
4	33.3	16	54	5	4	v Australia	Pallekele	26 Jul 2016
5	38.1	11	81	6	2	v Australia	Col-SSC	13 Aug 2016
M MURALITHARAN’S FIVE WICKET HAULS AGAINST AUSTRALIA
No	O	M	Runs	W	Inns	Opposition	Ground	Start Date
1	38.0	10	71	5	2	v Australia	Galle	22 Sep 1999
2	21.3	5	59	6	1	v Australia	Galle	08 Mar 2004
3	56.0	9	153	5	3	v Australia	Galle	08 Mar 2004
4	50.3	8	173	5	3	v Australia	Kandy	16 Mar 2004
5	37.1	6	123	5	1	v Australia	Col-SSC	24 Mar 2004