Sri Lanka v South Africa, 1st Test, Colombo, 3rd day

A Sri Lankan run-glut, and misery for South Africa

S Rajesh

July 29, 2006

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara came together when Sri Lanka were 14 for 2, and when they were finally separated, 157 overs had elapsed, during which period 624 runs had been added to the total. During the course of their monumental partnership, several records fell by the wayside, the most significant of which was obviously the world record for the highest stand, not only in a Test, but also in all first-class matches: the earlier record for first-class games stood in the names of Vijay Hazare and Gul Mohammad, who'd added 577 for the fourth wicket for Baroda versus Holkar. In Tests, the earlier record was held by another Sri Lankan pair - Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama had added a small matter of 576 runs against India in 1997.

While Jayawardene will be mightily satisfied with the couple of day's work, he will probably rue the fact that he couldn't manage the 27 runs which would have taken him past Brian Lara's record of 400 not out, the highest score in a Test innings. As it stands, Jayawardene's 374 is now the fourth-highest individual score in Tests. He does have the satisfaction, though, of being the record-holder for Sri Lanka, going past Jayasuriya's 340 against India in that match in Colombo. Jayawardene's knock is also the second-highest ever made by a captain, next only to Lara's undefeated 400.

The partnership has also made Sangakkara and Jayawardene the most prolific Sri Lankan pair in terms of average runs per partnership (among pair who have put together at least 1000 runs). Not only have they batted together 46 times, they've also put together seven century stands, and average nearly 69 runs per stand. Interestingly, the 2965 runs they've added is the second-highest for a Sri Lankan pair, behind only the opening combination of Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu.

The 357 runs added on the second day was also the highest in a day without a wicket falling. It equalled the record which West Indies set in 1957-58 against Pakistan, when Garry Sobers and Conrad Hunte added 357 en route to their partnership of 446. It was also only the seventh instance of a day when more than 300 runs were added without a wicket being lost. On five of those occasions the runs were made by a single pair of batsmen - the two instances when that didn't happen were in the India-West Indies match in 1978 (India made 291 without losing a wicket before declaring, and the West Indian openers added 15), and the Australia-West Indies match at Kingston in 1999, when Brian Lara and Jimmy Adams put together 321 after Pedro Collins retired hurt early in the day after adding 19 with Lara.

With the Sri Lankan batsmen hogging all the limelight, the only option for South Africa was to try and limit the damage. Jayawardene's score was the highest by any batsman against them, beating Chris Gayle's 317 in Antigua in 2004-05. The bowler who felt the heat more than any other was Nicky Boje, the left-arm spinner who toiled 65 overs without any success. The 221 runs he conceded is the second-most by any bowler who has ended wicketless in an innings - only Khan Mohammad, the Pakistan fast bowler, went for more, conceding 259 against West Indies in Jamaica in 1958.

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo

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Stories

Bulletin - Records tumble as Sri Lanka sit pretty

Matches

Sri Lanka v South Africa at Colombo (SSC)

Players/Umpires

Nicky Boje

Mahela Jayawardene

Series/Tournaments

South Africa tour of Sri Lanka

Teams

South Africa

Sri Lanka