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Marathon innings of 221 in 698 mts:
Goes past Lara with 10th double ton:
Sangakkara second to the DON
Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting
A magnificent double hundred (221) - his 10th - from stylish left
hander KUMAR CHOKSHANANDA SANGAKKARA which enabled him to go past West
Indian champion batsman Brian Lara was the highlight of the 4th day’s
play in the First Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the Galle
International Cricket Stadium here, today.
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Kumar Sangakkara batting during his 10th double century
innings on the fourth day of the first Test against Pakistan
in Galle yesterday. Picture by Kamal Jayamanne |
At the close Pakistan who made 451 in the first innings and batting a
second time after Sri Lanka declared at 533 for 9 were 4 for one,
trailing by 78 runs. Kurram Manzoor was caught behind by Niroshan
Dickwella off Herath for 3.
Sangakkara is now second in the all time list of great batsmen who
have scored double hundreds with the greatest batsman that the world has
seen or will ever see SIR DONALD BRADMAN of Australia heading the list
with 12 double hundreds. Sangakkara needs two more to be bracketed and
another to go past the PRINCE of batsmen.
When on 199 he pushed a delivery from Saeed Ajmal to point and
scampered for the epoch making run. It was greeted with the lighting of
fire crackers and a standing ovation from everyone and handshakes from
the Pakistan players.
There was no punching and jumping in the air. He graciously
acknowledged the cheers by removing his helmet and waving his bat to the
spectators acknowledging them followed by a bear hug from his partner
Dilruwan Perera.It was a marathon innings that lasted 425 balls, 698
minutes and which was studded with 22 fours. It is knocks like this that
gems are made of.
New ball taken
When play began on the 4th day after the final session and 46 overs
was lost the previous day due to a heavy downpour, Pakistan did not
dally but took the new ball first thing in the morning.
There was drama. First ball Pakistan should have had the wicket of
Kumar Sangakkara. Left arm pacie Junaid Khan bowling from over the
wicket pitched a delivery up to Sangakkara.
Sangakkara slashed from the crease only to see the ball cannoning to
Abdur Rehman at point. In jest Rehman would have gobbled that catch 11
times out of 10. But he grassed it. A single was taken.
Pakistan regret
You don’t give a batsman of Sangakkara’s class a second chance. And
he was out to make the Pakistanis regret the dropped chance as he
rubbished the bowling and rubbed it into the dust. Mahela Jayawardene
who was the cynosure of all eyes snicked the next ball through the slips
for 4. Played down a dot ball and then next ball disaster struck.
 Khan pitched a ball off stump and it nipped back to beat
Jayawardene’s bat and thud on to his pad. The deep throated appeal for
LBW was turned down by umpire Bruce Oxenford. Pakistan reviewed and won
it.
Sadly and cruelly ended Jayawardene’s final innings at the Galle
Stadium at which venue he made his maiden Test hundred (163) against New
Zealand in 1998. Jayawardene went for 59 at 257.
After the dropped catch from Rehman and as the Sangakkara- Angelo
Mathews stand prospered, the Pakistan ground fielding became untidy and
looked village green. That was inexplicable.
Then captain Mathews joined Sangakkara to stall the Pakistani push
for another breakthrough and negotiated the natural movement of the new
ball used by Junaid and Mohammed Talha and began to build the innings.
World of good
Mathews coming up the order has done his batting and the batting of
the team a world of good. He and Sangakkara batted with a lot of caution
and patience and deprived the opponents of any further wickets as they
took lunch at 338 for 3.
With the wicket playing like a concrete one with absolutely no help
to the pace or spin bowlers the batsmen took their stand to 81 with
individual scores of 139 and 43. After lunch Sangakkara and Mathews
began to play their usual attacking strokes and upped the scoring. The
Pakistani bowlers continued to toil without success, in addition their
sloppy ground fielding continued to plague them.
Batsmen dominate
The batsmen continued to dominate. Sangakkara once his innings began
to grow unwound and played his usual well timed cuts and cover drives
that screeched to the boundary.
Mathews who seems to be batting better after promoting himself was
once again his calm and collected self and when the hittable balls came
along he banged it to the fence and once over it.
Sangakkara and Mathews took their 4th wicket stand to 181 in 343
balls when just before tea Mathews lunged forward and had the
disappointment of seeing the ball from Ajmal lob into the hands of
Younis Khan at slip.Mathews was shaping well and a century was his for
the asking. But luck was not with him and he went 9 runs short of a
hundred. This is the third time that he has been out on 91. He had 9
fours and a six in a 188 ball innings.
Kithuruwan Vithanage joined Sangakkara who was nearing his double
hundred and survived to take tea at 449 for 3 with Sangakkara on 189 and
Vithanage 5.The post lunch session belonged to Sri Lanka.
Off spinner Ajmal who pegged away relentlessly, but could not have a
wicket to his name until just before tea when he had Mathews, suddenly
became unplayable after tea. With two big spinning off breaks he had the
two left handers Vithanage and Niroshan Dickwella caught in the gully by
Asad Shafiq for 5 runs each and then enticed Dilruwan Perera also on 5
to sweep to square leg where Junaid Khan took a sitter.
Then Sri Lanka lost the wickets of Sangakkara who was stumped by
Safraz Ahmed for 221 and Dhamikka Prasad who played a cameo also stumped
for 31 with 2 fours and two sixes and Sri Lanka declared at 533 for 9 in
163.1 overs.
Saeed Ajmal the world’s best spinner who was harshly treated by
Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Mathews and who mesmerized the tail was
finally rewarded with 5 wickets for 166 runs in 59.1 overs.
Galle Int’l Cricket Stadium, Saturday.
SCOREBOARD
Pakistan 1st innings 451 all out
Sri Lanka 1st innings (overnight 252-2, Sangakkara 102 n.o, Jayawardene 55 n.o)
Upul Tharanga lbw b J Khan 19
Kaushal Silva c Ahmed b Talha 64
Kumar Sangakkara st Ahmed b Rehman 221
Mahela Jayawardene lbw J Khan 59
Angelo Mathews c Y Khan b Ajmal 91
Kithuruwan Vithanage c Shafiq b Ajmal 05
Niroshan Dickwella c Shafiz b Ajmal 05
Dilruwan Perera c J Khan b Ajmal 05
Dhammika Prasad st Ahmed b Ajmal 31
Rangana Herath not out 06
Extras (b 5, lb 11, w 7, nb 4) 27
TOTAL (9 wickets dec; 163.1 overs) 533
Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Tharanga), 2-144 (Silva)
3-257 (Jayawardene), 4-438 (Mathews)
5-450 (Vithanage), 6-458 (Dickwella)
7-475 (Perera), 8-511 (Sangakkara)
9-533 (Prasad)
Bowling: Junaid Khan 33-9-104-2
Mohammad Talha 27-4-104-1
Saeed Ajmal 59.1-8-166-5
Abdur Rehman 39-2-123-1
Ahmed Shehzad 5-0-20-0
Pakistan 2nd innings
Khurram Manzoor c Dickwella b Herath 03
Ahmed Shehzad not out 01
Saeed Ajmal not out 00
Extras 00
TOtAL (1 wicket; 6 overs) 04
Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Manzoor)
Bowling: Rangana Herath 3-2-3-1
Shaminda Eranga 1-1-0-0
Dilruwan Perera 2-1-1-0
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