Sri Lanka’s flag still flies high in cricket world

By A. C. De Silva

FLASHBACK: The game of cricket is loved by many people around the world wherever they made be. It is a sport loved and cherished by the young and old. Cricket has been given a prominent place here in Sri Lanka both at school and the ‘outside world’. Though Sri Lanka has fallen off a bit, they have the ‘guts’ to pick-up and hit the top again.

After Sri Lanka won the World Cup under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga there were many avenues opened for the young cricketers to venture out to other countries with the hope that the young players will be in a position to improve their game.

Sri Lanka’s dynamic batting strategy, which pleased the entire cricket world won the World Cup in 1996, may well have had its start in 1985. The Lankans had been very aggressive in the one-day game.

Sri Lanka’s youngsters still very young on the Test scene, has a really noteworthy performance to talk about in Test cricket. The highest total in a Test match – 952 for 6 wickets against India in the 1997-98 series stands head and shoulders against all other Test played by the teams.

The massive Sri Lanka score was made possible by two front line players – left-hander Sanath Jayasuriya who made a colossal 340 on that occasion while No 3 bat right-handed batsman Roshan Siriwardena Mahanama made 225 and duo had a marathon partnership making 576 runs. They became the first pair to bat through two full days of a Test match.

Sri Lanka’s scoreboard in that memorable match:

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. Jayawardena c Kulkarni b Ganguly 66
R.S. Kaluwitharana not out 14
U.C.J. Yaas 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: 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).

Test ends in ‘tie’

The only Test match to result in a ‘tie’ was played between Australia and the West Indies at Woolongabba, Brisbane, and ended on 14 December 1960.

Australia, requiring 233 to win in 310 minutes, lost their last wicket to a run out off the seventh ball of the final over. After much confusion the scores were found to be level.

Only one last ball victory

Statisticians have kept a close record of Test cricket matches and of the 1,051 Test matches played up to the end of the 1986 season, there has been one win off the last possible ball: At Kingsmead in Durban on 20 December 1948, England’s 9th wicket pair – Alex Bedser and Cliff Gladwin needed 8 runs from the final 8-ball over from Lindsay Tuckett. Before Bedser brought the scores level off the sixth ball, all four results were possible. Gladwin missed the 7th ball. He also missed the last ball. It bounced off his thigh and the batsmen managed to scamper a leg-bye.

Highest number of wickets to fall: 27

The highest number of wickets to fall in a day of Test cricket is 27 on July 17 in 1888. The wicket was of W.G. Grace, the champion cricketer of the day-some would argue that the all time great – featured twice in that incredible tally.

The record was set on a farcically difficult mud pitch at Lord’s on the second day of the first Test against Australia’s 116 all out. In under an hour they had lost their remaining seven wickets for 35 runs. Australia at one stage were 18 for 7 wickets and they totalled 60 and set England 124 runs to win.

By 4.25 p.m. Australia had bowled England out for 62 and were being heartily cheered by thousands of spectators massed in front of the pavilion. Grace, the only England batsman to reach double figures in both innings, recorded the highest score of the match: 24.

In just over 3 hours of actual play, 27 wickets had fallen for 157 runs.

England – greatest margin of victory

Coming to cricket elsewhere – the greatest margin of victory in Test cricket in living memory was achieved by England at The Oval on 24th August 1938 when they defeated Australia by an innings and 579 runs on the fourth day. After amassing the somewhat record total of 903 for 7 wickets in 15 hours and 17 minutes before Hammond declared at tes on the third day, England dismissed Australia twice in 4 ¾ hours of play. With Fingleton and Bradman both injured and unable to bat, Australia scored 201 and 123.

Bradman unmatchable

The highest batting average in a Test career involving more than 5 innings is 99.94 by Bradman for Australia. In 52 Tests, he scored 6,996 runs from 80 innings, then on them in one he was undefeated. He averaged a century every 2.8 innings. He needed to score just 4 runs in his final Test innings on Saturday 14th August 1948 in the 5th Test at The Oval, to become the second (after Hammond) to score 7,000 runs and the first to attain a career average of 100. Given a standing ovation by the crowd throughout his progress to the middle, Bradman was then given three cheers from England team.

Shortly before Six-O’Clock he took guard and safely negotiated the first ball, a leg-break from Eric Hollies. The next was pitched on a perfect length a googly which spun past Bradman’s forward defensive stroke and bowled him.

Sunil Gavaskar 774 – most runs in first series

The most runs by a batsman playing in his first Test series is 774 (average 154.80) by Sunil Gavaskar in four matches for India in the West Indies in 1971. His eight innings were: 65, 67 not out, 116, 64 not out, 1, 117 not out, 124 and 220.Sergery on a septic finger prevented his playing in the First Test.

The highest individual aggregate in a Test match is 380 runs by Greg Chappell, who scored 247 not out and 133 for Australia against New Zealand at Wellington from March 1 to 6 in 1974.

Brian Lara will not be forgotten

The name of West Indian star Brian Lara will not be forgotten. Born on May 2nd 1969 he charmed the cricket world with his fine batsmanship that had the cricket world stunned. He made his Test debut against Pakistan in December 1990 and his batting was of such fine quality that he was picked as Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1995.

Lara went from strength to strength. In 1994 he broke the world records for highest Test and first class scores of 375 and 501 not out.In Australia’s visit in 1998-99, Lara scored 213, 8, 153 not out and 100. Then against Sri Lanka in 2001-02 Lara scored a record 42 per cent of the West Indies runs on the tour.

Then an epic knock of 400 not out against England in Antigua in April 2004 reclaimed his world record for highest Test innings and led his team to victory in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy in England. In November 2005, Lara became Test Cricket’s most prolific run scorer with 11,174 runs by passing Alan Border’s record. He was reinstated as West Indies captain, for a third time, in April 2006. He has scored centuries against every Test playing nation.

Youngest to score double century

The youngest to score a double century is Pakistan’s Javed Miandad. He was 19 years and 141 days old when he made 206 for Pakistan against New Zealand at Karachi on 31st October 1976.