Bowler Herath tips his hat to spin great Murali

Rangana Herath says Sri Lanka's bowlers will do their best to keep the wickets falling after the retirement of the spin legend.

Life without Muttiah Muralitharan is not going to be the same for Sri Lanka's bowlers - but Rangana Herath, who starred with the bat with a dazzling 80 against India yesterday, says they will do their best to keep the wickets falling after the retirement of the great spin bowler, who is playing in his final Test match. "I am fortunate that in my career I had the honour of bowling in tandem with Murali," Herath told cricinfo.com yesterday.

"It is easy to bowl with him at the other end. It will be difficult to fill the void left by Murali but Ajantha Mendis, Suraj Randiv and I are trying our best to win matches for our team and country." And the first wicket they are aiming for today is that of Virender Sehwag, who was unbeaten on 85 at stumps yesterday as Indian wickets fell all around him in their first innings. "We are on top now and if we can get two or three early wickets and bowl them out for under 300 we are in the game. That's our target," Herath said.

"There is turn and bounce on the pitch and I am confident I can do something on it. Sehwag is the danger man and we need to get him out early." * cricinfo.com