da dobrowin： It was the 1559th Test match in cricket history
Rajneesh Gupta04-Sep-2001It was the 1559th Test match in cricket history.It was India’s 344th and Sri Lanka’s 114th match- 23rd between thesetwo sides. The record now reads : Sri Lanka 3,India 8,drawn 12.It was the 54th Test match on Sri Lankan soil and 18th on this ground.Umpires Dave Orchard and Asoka de Silva were officiating in their24th and fifth match respectively.Thilan Samaraweera was making his Test debut for Sri Lanka. Hebecame the 86th player to represent Sri Lanka in a Test match.Dulip Liyanage was making a comeback into Sri Lankan side afterseven years and seven months. He last appeared in a Test against Indiaat Lucknow in January 1994,missing 62 Tests in between. He now holdsthe Sri Lankan record of missing most matches in between twoconsecutive appearances beating left-arm spinner Don Anurasiri’srecord of 27 Tests (between 1993-94 to 1997-98) quite comfortably.Liyanage now is jointly placed at 13th position in Test annals. Therecord remains with Pakistan’s Younis Ahmed who missed 104 matches inbetween 1969 and 1986-87. The details:
Tests
Player
For
From
Vs
To
Vs
104
Younis Ahmed
Pak
1969-70
NZ
1986-87
Ind
103
D Shackleton
Eng
1951-52
Ind
1963
WI
96
HL Jackson
Eng
1949
NZ
1961
Aus
86
PI Pocock
Eng
1976
WI
1984
WI
85
W Larkins
Eng
1981
Aus
1989-90
WI
79
KV Andrew
Eng
1954-55
Aus
1963
WI
75
DB Close
Eng
1967
Pak
1976
WI
71
RB Simpson
Aus
1967-68
Ind
1977-78
Ind
71
GE Bradburn
NZ
1992-93
SL
2000-01
Pak
69
WGA Parkhouse
Eng
1950-51
NZ
1959
Ind
68
DR Martyn
Aus
1993-94
SA
1999-00
NZ
66
SJ Rixon
Aus
1977-78
WI
1984-85
WI
65
RW Taylor
Eng
1970-71
NZ
1977-78
Pak
62
FJ Titmus
Eng
1967-68
WI
1974-75
Aus
62
DK Liyanage
SL
1993-94
Ind
2001-02
Ind
60
G Gunn
Eng
1911-12
Aus
1929-30
WI
60
D Wilson
Eng
1963-64
Ind
1970-71
NZ
60
N Gifford
Eng
1964
Aus
1971
Pak
Chaminda Vaas became the second Sri Lankan bowler after MuttiahMuralitharan (340 wickets in 65 matches) and 67th bowler in Testhistory to take 150 wickets when he had Mohammed Kaif caught behind byKumara Sangakkara in first innings. He was playing his 51st Testmatch.Muttiah Muralitharan (8-87) became the first Sri Lankan and seventhbowler to take eight or more wickets in an innings against India. Theprevious best for Sri Lanka against India was 6 for 85 by RumeshRatnayake on this ground in 1985-86.Muralitharan’s figures were also the best by any bowler on SriLankan soil. Interestingly the previous best was 7 for 84 also byMuralitharan against South Africa at Galle in 2000-01.Muralitharan claimed 50 wickets in his 12th match against India whenhe dismissed Sadagopan Ramesh in second innings. He became the firstSri Lankan and 16th bowler to do so. Incidentally Pakistan’s ImranKhan with 94 wickets from 23 matches holds the record of capturingmost wickets in a career against India.Marvan Atapattu (108),Mahela Jayawerdene (139),Hashan Tillakaratne(136*) and Thilan Samaraweera (103*) provided the eighth instance inTest cricket history where four or more batsmen made hundreds in thesame innings. This was however the first such instance for Sri Lanka.Only twice before have Sri Lankan batsmen scored three hundreds in thesame innings – against Australia at this same venue in August 1992 andagainst India at the Premadasa in August 1997. Only a day earlier fivePakistani batsmen had scored hundreds against Bangladesh at Multanwhich equalled the record held by Australia against the West Indies atKingston in June 1955. India has now conceded four hundreds in sameinnings on four occasions. No other team has conceded so many morehundreds than once!The unbeaten partnership of 194 runs between Hashan Tillekeratne anddebutant Thilan Samaraweera was Sri Lanka’s best for the seventhwicket in Tests. This oblitareted the previous best of 144 betweenAravinda de Silva and Ravi Ratnayeke against Australia at Brisbane in1989-90. The partnership was also the highest ever by any team againstIndia for this wicket bettering the previous best of 163 between NewZealand’s Bert Sutcliffe and Bruce Taylor at Calcutta in 1964-65.Incidentally the previous highest seventh wicket partnership for SriLanka against India was a paltry 77 between Ranjan Madugalle andSomachandra de Silva at Madras in 1982-83. This was also the highestunbeaten partnership for the seventh wicket in Test history.Theprevious highest such partnership was the 160 between India’s SachinTendulkar and Manoj Prabhakar against England at Manchester in 1990.Thilan Samaraweera (103*) became only the third Sri Lankan batsman toscore a hundred on Test debut. The two others are Brendon Kuruppu(201*) against New Zealand at the Colombo Cricket Club ground in1986-87 and Romesh Kaluwitharana (132*) against Australia at the sameground in 1992-93. Samaraweera became the 71st batsman to score ahundred in his debut Test. Samaraweera became the first Sri Lankan toscore a Test hundred at number eight.The previous highest was the 62by Ruwan Kalpage against Pakistan at Kandy in 1994-95. Sri Lanka’stotal of 610-6 dec was its second highest in Tests after the worldrecord 952-6 also against India at the Premadasa in August 1997.Rahul Dravid became the eighth Indian batsman and 70th batsman inall to aggregate 4000 runs in a Test career his 36-run knock. It was84th innings of his 48th Test match. The other Indian batsman toachieve this distinction are Sunil Gavaskar (10122 runs in 125 Tests),Sachin Tendulkar (6919 runs in 84 Tests), Dilip Vengsarkar (6868 runsin 116 Tests), Mohammed Azharuddin (6215 runs in 99 Tests), GundappaViswanath (6080 runs in 91 Tests), Kapil Dev (5248 runs in 131 Tests)and Mohinder Amarnath (4378 runs in 69 Tests). Among the Indians onlySunil Gavaskar has reached this target in lesser matches and innings(43 and 81 respectively).Muralitharan’s match figures of 11 for 196 were the best by a SriLankan against India. The previous record was in the name of RumeshRatnayake who took nine wickets for 125 runs at the same ground in1985-86.It was the sixth occasion when Muralithran took ten or more wicketsin a match. Among the spinners only Australia’s Clarrie Grimmett hasmore ten wicket hauls – seven to his name. The Test record of mostten-wicket hauls (irrespective of type of bowler) is held by NewZealander Richard Hadlee with nine such instances.Muralitharan’s 11-196 was the third best match performance by aspinner against India after the 11-105 by Australian right-arm legspinner Richie Benaud at Kolkata in 1956-57 and the 11-153 by theEnglish left-arm spinner Hedley Verity at Chennai in 1933-34. HoweverMurali’s performance was the best by a spinner in a Test match againstIndia on foreign soil bettering the 9-63 by West Indian off-spinnerLance Gibbs at Bridgetown in 1961-62. Muralitharan’s 23 wickets in theseries is the best performance by a Sri Lankan bowler against India.The previous highest was the 20 wickets by Rumesh Ratnayake duringthe three match series in 1985-86 in Sri Lanka.The last wicket partnership of 30 runs between Zaheer Khan andVenkatesh Prasad was India’s best against Sri Lanka obliterating theprevious best of 29 between Kapil Dev and Chetan Sharma at the ColomboSaravanamuttu Stadium in 1985-86. Shiv Sundar Das (59 & 68) became19th Indian to top score in each innings of a Test. He also providedthe 28th such instance for India. The victory by an innings and 77runs equalled Sri Lanka’s best in Tests. The team had beaten Zimbabweby an identical margin at the Premadasa Stadium, Colombo in September1996. Sri Lanka now has innings victories on five occasions – againstZimbabwe, New Zealand, South Africa, England and India. The followingtable lists the best wins for each Test playing nation by inningsmargin :Country
Margin of Victory
Opponents
Venue
Season
England
Inns & 579 runs
Aus
The Oval
1938
Australia
Inns & 332 runs
Eng
Brisbane
1946-47
South Africa
Inns & 229 runs
SL
Cape Town
2000-01
West Indies
Inns & 336 runs
Ind
Calcutta
1958-59
New Zealand
Inns & 185 runs
Pak
Hamilton
2000-01
India
Inns & 219 runs
Aus
Calcutta
1997-98
Pakistan
Inns & 264 runs
BD
Multan
2001-02
Sri Lanka
Inns & 77 runs
Zim
Colombo RPS
1996-97
Inns & 77 runs
Ind
Colombo SSC
2001-02
Zimbabwe
Inns & 64 runs
Pak
Harare
1994-95
Bangladesh
No instance
The defeat was India’s 33rd by an innings margin in Tests and itsfirst against Sri Lanka. It was India’s 73rd defeat on foreign soil in162 matches and its third on Sri Lankan soil. Muralitharan wasnominated the Man-of-the-Match award for the seventh time in hiscareer. Among the Sri Lankans only Aravinda de Silva has won moreawards (11) than him. It was Sri Lanka’s second series win againstIndia after its first in 1985-86 at home. It was Ganguly first Testseries loss as captain.