Sanath's 340 and World Record total of 952/6 wkts lasting memories
by A. C. de Silva
CRICKET: Sanath Jayasuriya has announced his retirement from Test
cricket but vowed that he will be in the game for the limited-over stuff
and that's something that he really relishes.
But, up at Asgiriya Stadium, the attacking left-hander Sanath
Jayasuriya, made a graceful exit from the longer version of the game
with a fine knock of 78 in the second innings when he opened Sri Lanka's
second innings with Michael Van Dort who made 49 and the pair added 113
runs for their opening partnership that finally paved the way for Sri
Lanka's win in the First Test against England. Sri Lanka made 188 in the
first innings, and 442 for 8 wickets declared in their second turn, with
Kumar Sangakkara making 92 in the first and the most attractive and
heart-rendering knock of 152 in the second innings to get quite
deservedly the Man of the Match award.
England who made 288 in their first innings were out for 281 in their
second innings which gave Sri Lanka a win by 88 runs. Muralitharan had 6
for 55 in the first innings and 3 for 85 in the second innings with Vaas
getting 3 for 56 in the second innings and Dilhara Fernando 2 for 39 in
the second innings which caused the downfall of the England team.
So, Sanath Jayasuriya takes a bow from the longer duration of the
game and when he goes off, he has the added satisfaction that he not
only had star-class individual figures to show what an attractive
batsman he was throughout his career, but he also took great pride in
the welfare of his side whatever the match was.
Jayasuriya has retired, but, there is one match that he will long
remember is the Test match against India in August 1997 at the R.
Premadasa Stadium. Batsmen called the tune in this Test Match and after
five days of exhilarating batting only 14 wickets fell after five days
of cricket.
India made a fine score of 537 for 8 wickets declared in their first
innings and they had cause to be overjoyed as on paper their total
looked a match-winning one. But, little did they expect Sri Lanka to
match them or to be precise, steamroll over them.
The man who led the run chase for Sri Lanka was Sanath Jayasuriya who
was attempting to beat West Indian Brian Lara's world batting record
score of 375. Had it not been for the interest produced by Jayasuriya
going for Lara's world record and the world record partnership between
Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama, which produced 576 runs for the second
wicket, the interest somewhat died down.
But Jayasuriya missed out on the big one. He fell short of 40 runs in
his attempt to break Lara's world batting record, but he and Sri Lanka
was somewhat compensated by Sri Lanka hitting up the highest-ever total
in Test history when they amassed 952 for six wickets on the fifth and
final day.
The Indians occupied the crease to compile 537 for 8 wickets declared
and then the Sri Lankan batsmen went on a run-riot on the next three
days on a pitch which proved to be a heart break for the bowlers.
Sanath Jayasuriya made a huge score of 340 runs in 799 minutes off
578 balls with two sixes and 36 fours in a fine display of concentration
and endurance with Roshan Mahanama whose knock of 225 took him 753
minutes and had in it 28 fours. The Jayasuriya-Mahanama combination a
world record stand of 576 runs.
The two stalwarts were two balls away of each other, the tired Indian
attack had no respite as Aravinda de Silva (126), skipper Arjuna
Ranatunga (86) and Test debutant Mahela Jayawardena (66) scored freely
for Sri Lanka to go past England's 59-year-old world record total of 903
for 7 wickets declared against Australia at the Oval.
Aravinda de Silva hit his 12th Test century after batting for 293
minutes and with Ranatunga whose 86 runs came off 110 deliveries, added
175 runs for the fourth wicket, Aravinda had a another century stand
(131 runs) with Mahela Jayawardena for the fifth wicket.
Jayawardena was out for 66 and Mahela Jayawardena must be a very
happy man these days as he happened to captain the Sri Lanka team in the
present series against England.
So, Sri Lanka keeps the world batting record.
-----------------
INDIA 1st Innings:
537 for 8 wkts dec.
SRI LANKA 1st Innings S. T. Jayasuriya c Ganguly b Chauhan 340 M. S.
Atapattu c Mongia b Kulkarni 26 R. S. Mahanama 1bw b Kumble 225 P. A. de
Silva c Prasad b Ganguly 126 A. Ranatunga run out 86 D. P. M.
Jayawardena c Kulkarni b Ganguly 66 R. S. Kaluwitharana not out 14 U. C.
J. Vaas 11 Extras (B-27, LB 10, W - 7, NB - 14) 58 Total: (for 6 wkts at
stumps, 271 overs, 1,126 mins) 952
Did not bat: K. R. Pushpakumara, M. Muralitharan, K. J. Silva
Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-615, 3-615, 4-790, 5-921, 6-924.
Bowling: Prasad 24-1-88-0 (W-4), Kuruvila 14-2-74-0 (NB 4), Chauhan
78-8-276-1 (W-3, NB-5), Kumble 72-7-223-1 (NB-5), Kulkarni 70-10-195-1,
Ganguly 9-0-53-2, Tendulkar 2-1-2-0, Dravid 2-0-4-0.
Man of the Match: S. T. Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)
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England 903/7 dec
England vs Australia 1938, the match that gave England the chance to
set up the record score of 903 for 7 wickets declared - the world's
highest Test score. England after batting first and getting that record
score, bowled out Australia for totals of 201 and 123 to win by an
innings and 579 runs.
The match was played at the Kensington Oval, London
ENGLAND 1ST INNINGS
L. Hutton c Hassett b O'Reilly 364 W. J. Edrich 1bw b O'Reilly 12 M.
Leyland run out 187 W. R. Hammond 1bw b Fleetwood Smith 59 E. Paynter
1bw b O'Reilly 0 D. C. S. Compton b Waite 1 J. Hardstaff Jnr not out 169
A. Wood c and b Barnes 53 H. Verity not out 8 EXTRAS: (b-22, lb-19, w-1,
nb-8) 50 TOTAL (for 7 wkts dec off 333.2 overs) 903
Did not bat: K. Farnes, W. E. Bowes.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-29, 2-411, 3-546, 4-547, 5-555, 6-770, 7-876.
BOWLING: Waite 72-16-150-1, S. McCabe 38-8-85-0, O'Reilly
85-26-178-3, Fleetwood Smith 87-11-298-1, Barnes 38-3-84-1, Hassett
13-2-52-0, Bradman 2.2-1-6-0.
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