Jayasuriya (340) and Mahanama (225) helped Sri Lanka to 952 for 6 wkts

By A. C. de Silva

CRICKET: Now everyone is talking about the feat of Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera in the just concluded first cricket Test against Pakistan in Karachi.

Have the fans forgotten about the marvellous performance of Arjuna Ranatunga's team against India at the Premadasa Stadium in 1997? There was a world record established then and the score made by Arjuna and his men - 952 for 6 wickets still stands as an all time record in Tests.

Sri Lanka star Sanath Jayasuriya was going for West Indian Brian Lara's world record and for the world record partnership between Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama, which produced 576 runs for the second wicket, the Test had to end in a draw.

Brian Lara's world record score was 375 and the disappointment of Jayasuriya not breaking Lara's record - he fell short by 36 runs as he was dismissed for 340, it was somewhat compensated by Sri Lanka making their presence felt in no uncertain manner in the Test by amassing the highest ever total for one side in Test history - 952 for six wickets on the fifth and final day of the match.

Though Jayasuriya missed getting at Lara's record, he got at another great batsman's record - that was the late Sir Donald Bradman's mark of 334, made against England at Leeds in 1930.

As everyone would know, Sir Donald was a star-class batsman - the greatest batsman the world has ever seen.

Coming to the Test where Jayasuriya held centre-stage, the first two days were occupied by India who piled up a total of 537 for 8 wickets declared, and then it was the turn of the Sri Lankan batsmen to show the world that they also had the guts and nerve to score runs on a pitch which turned out to be a heart-break for the bowlers.

Jayasuriya's majestic knock of 340 runs came in 799 minutes off 578 balls and it included 2 sixes and 36 fours and his concentration coupled with endurance to stay long at the wicket brought fruitful dividends.

Jayasuriya found an able partner in Roshan Mahanama who was equal to the task and Mahanama knock of 225 took 753 minutes and the pair put up a world record stand of 576 runs for any wicket.

They were really involved in the partnership for the record wicket after Marven Atapattu was out for 26 and the total was 39 for 1 wicket. The record wicket fall with the score at 615.

That was not the end of the story. Even after their dismiss the second and third wickets falling within the space of two balls of each other at the identical score of 615, the slaughter of the Indian bowlers continued as vice-captain Aravinda de Silva (126), skipper Arjuna Ranatunga (86) and Test debutant Mahela Jayawardene (66) continued the good work as far as Sri Lanka was concerned to get to England's world record score of 903 for 7 wickets declared against Australia at the Oval. England beat Australia in the Test by an innings and 579 runs.

When England got that score of 903 for 7 wickets, England was captained by the great Wally Hammond who won the toss and batted.

After Bill Edrich was out with only 29 runs on the Board, Maurice Leyland joined Sir Len Hutton and then this pair added 382 runs for the second wicket and lasted almost 6 1/2 hours. Hutton went on to make 364 which had 35 fours, 15 threes, 18 twos and 143 singles. He batted for 13 hours 20 minutes. Leyland made 187.

Australia were out for 201 and following-on 702 runs behind, could scrape together only 123 runs in the second innings.

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 lbw b Kumble			225
P. A. de Silva c Prasad b Ganguly		126
A. Ranatunga run out	 		 	 86		
D. P. M. Jayawardene c Kulkarni b Ganguly	 66
R. S. Kaluwitharana not out	 		 14
U. C. J. Vaas not out	 			 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: 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.

RESULT: Drawn

MAN OF THE MATCH: S. T. Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka)