Rangana Herath may not have many bowling secrets to guard, but of the few tricks up his sleeve, he is intensely protective. Not for him are the perplexations of the doosra. He has a carrom ball, but jokes that it must be the worst one in world cricket. He banks on subtlety for his hauls, and there is subtlety in the way he avoids publicly revealing his means of success, too. "I just put the ball in the right place," he keeps telling commentators on the podium, and journalists at end-of-day press conferences. He is 351 wickets into his Test career now. Perhaps it is time we stopped believing him.
It is at home that Herath struts around in full summertime plumage, coaxing batsmen gently towards the rough ball by ball, until he rips one hard and draws the fatal mistake. Other times he turns a few, then nails the batsman in front of the stumps with the straighter delivery. There is no menace in his body language, but ruthlessly does he prey on fear. If you don't know how much the ball will turn; if you don't know whether to surge forward or push back, to Herath you are pretty much already dead.
Outside Asia, Herath knows he is more stop screw than spearhead. He has to be the man who maintains some degree of control over the opposition while the quicks cut loose. His fields are a bit defensive to begin with, and if a batsman attacks, they will spread much more quickly than they do in Galle or Colombo. The sweepers may go out on day one. Long-on may be deployed even in his first spell. Short leg is a rare sight early in overseas Tests, though he does keep slip in place.
"An in-out field becomes very useful outside Asia, especially when a batsman is trying to get runs quickly," Herath says. "No matter how attacking a batsman is, they will find it very difficult to keep doing it again and again in a Test, because it's a format that suits the bowler more. You have opportunities to get a wicket there.
"And when you're performing that holding role, you have to be a little smart. Variations are important. Things like switching lines and lengths up a bit, and using the crease a little more to change your point of delivery can help you play with the batsmen's mind. The important thing, though, is staying patient until the pitch is in your favour."
It is in "playing with the batsman's mind" that Herath has excelled over half a decade, keeping attacking batsmen scoreless and fidgety, while lulling the defensive ones into thinking they have his measure only to walk into an over full of surprises. Often a batsman will find Herath deliveries bowled with the same action, coming in with the same flight, and landing in the same place, are somehow radically different propositions when it comes to playing them. It is as if the ball decides on its next move only upon meeting with the surface. Yet again, this is more a feature of home exploits, than on tours outside the continent.
"You can only really vary your turn on turning pitches," Herath says. "In Sri Lanka and Asia, the pitches help you, so a little difference in the turn you impart can have a big difference on the other end. In places like South Africa, you can't expect a big difference by varying turn, because the ball just doesn't turn much. Maybe variation in turn will come into play at the back end of a game.
"The other thing is, even if foreign batsmen may not be used to playing spin, the pitches present a challenge to the spinner as well. So the batsmen can play spin differently here than they would in Sri Lanka. At home, when a batsman gets beaten, they suddenly start to have that fear of the ball beating the bat again. Here that is just not there."
None of this is to suggest that Herath becomes ineffective overseas. If the track offers something to a spinner, he is usually the best on show by a distance, from either team. Having been foiled by green pitches at Headingley and Chester-le-Street in England this year, he claimed a first-innings 4 for 95 on a Lord's pitch, which was by no means as dry as the track Yasir Shah spun Pakistan to victory on a few weeks later.
In the 2012-13 tour of Australia, he had claimed 5 for 95 in the second innings, before taking 7 for 142 in Sydney. That he went wicketless in the Melbourne match in between was because, as is often the case, Australia only batted once, and Sri Lanka missed multiple chances off his bowling to boot.
He has, of course, had little luck on New Zealand pitches, which have been so green they are rumoured to have counted towards the nation's carbon offsets. In South Africa, though, came his greatest foreign outing - the 9 for 128 in Durban that saw Sri Lanka win their first match in the country. He is hoping for a similar pitch in the first Test here.
"I think, even the Port Elizabeth pitch, there has been help for spinners because it's known as a bit of a slow track. Out of the three places we are playing, this venue probably shapes as the best place for spin. Cape Town and the Wanderers will be better for the fast bowlers. Maybe there will be something here. Maybe on day four and five."