da supremo： It was 1558th Test in cricket history
Rajneesh Gupta26-Aug-2001It was 1558th Test in cricket history.It was India’s 343rd and Sri Lanka’s 113th Test match.It was the 22nd Test between these two sides. The record now reads :India 8, Sri Lanka 2 ,drawn 12.It was the 11th Test between these two sides. The record now reads :India 2, Sri Lanka 2,drawn 7.Tyronne Wijewardene was making his debut as a Test umpire. He became16th Sri Lankan to officiate in a Test match. The other umpire SteveBucknor was officiating in his 60th match.Chaminda Vaas was playing in his 50th Test. He became the seventh SriLankan and the 172nd player in all to do so. England’s Andrew Caddickbecame 173rd player to appear in 50 or more matches a day after Vaasdoing so.Hashan Tillakaratne became fourth Sri Lankan to complete 3000 runs ina Test career when he scored his 7th run in second innings. He wasplaying his 58th match and 94th innings. Others with 3000 plus runsfor Sri Lanka are Aravinda de Silva (5952 runs in 89 matches), ArjunaRanatunga (5105 in 93) and Sanath Jayasuriya (3730 in 61).Muralitharan (67) made his maiden fifty in his 67th Test. His inningswas the second highest by a number nine batsman for Sri Lanka afterGraeme Labrooy’s 70* against New Zealand at Auckland in 1990-91.Muralitharan’s previous highest was 39 against India at Colombo SSC in1997-98 which was also the previous highest score for Sri Lankaagainst India at number nine.The 64-run partnership between Muralitharan and Ruchira Perera insecond innings was Sri Lanka’s best for tenth wicket against India.The previous best was 44 between Asoka de Silva and Rumesh Ratnayakeat Nagpur in 1986-87. The pair however just failed to better SriLanka’s best tenth wicket partnership in all Tests which still remainsas 73 between Hashan Tillakaratne and Sajeewa de Silva againstPakistan at Dhaka in 1998-99.Venkatesh Prasad’s second innings figures of 5 for 72 are the bestbowling figures by an Indian in Sri Lanka bettering Anil Kumble’s 5for 87 in first innings of Colombo (SSC) Test in 1993-94.Saurav Ganguly’s 98* was his first fifty in 14 innings. After hisunbeaten 65 against Zimbabwe at Delhi in 2000-01 he scored30,8,1,23,48,22,4,5,9,0,15,4 and 18.Ganguly’s innings equalled the highest unbeaten score in the nineties by anIndian batsman. Dilip Vengsarkar had scored an unbeaten 98 also againstSri Lanka at Colombo SSC in 1985-86. Other Indian batsmen who remainedunbeaten in the nineties are Gundappa Viswanath (97* v West Indies atMadras in 1974-75) and Ajit Wadekar (91* v Australia at Delhi in1969-70).Ganguly also became the seventh Indian captain on the eighth occasionto record a score in the nineties. Sachin Tendulkar has suffered thisfate on two occasions. Interestingly Ganguly is the only among the sevento end on the winning side.India’s total of 264 for three was its second highest in the fourthinnings to win a Test . It was also only the third time Indiasuccessfully chased a target of 250 plus in the fourth innings of aTest. The first instance came on October 15,1964 against Australia atBrabourne Stadium in Bombay when India made 256-8 chasing a target of254. The second instance was against West Indies on April 12,1976 whenIndia made history by making 406-4 after being set a target of403. India’s total in that Test remains the highest ever winning totalachieved by any side in the fourth innings of a Test.The 264-run target set by Sri Lanka provided the 67th instance whenIndia was asked to score over 250 in the fourth innings to win a Testmatch. India has won only three, tied one (v Australia at Madras in1986-87), drawn 28 and lost 35. The accompanying table lists India’swins after being set a victory target of 125 or more by opponents inthe fourth innings :
Total
Opponents
Target
Venue
Test
Season
406-4
West Indies
402
Port-of-Spain
3rd
1975-76
264-3
Sri Lanka
264
Kandy
2nd
2001
256-8
Australia
253
Bombay
2nd
1964-65
200-5
New Zealand
199
Dunedin
1st
1967-68
190-3
Zimbabwe
189
Delhi
1st
2000-01
184-2
Zimbabwe
183
Bulawayo Q.C.
1st
2001
181-3
Australia
180
Delhi
3rd
1969-70
174-6
England
172
The Oval
3rd
1971
155-8
Australia
154
Madras
3rd
2000-01
151-2
New Zealand
150
Bangalore
1st
1995-96
136-5
England
133
Lord’s
1st
1986
125-7
West Indies
124
Madras
4th
1978-79
125-3
West Indies
123
Port-of-Spain
2nd
1970-71
With the win over Sri Lanka in Kandy Test, Saurav Ganguly equalled therecord of winning most Tests on foreign soil as Indian captain. This was Ganguly’s third Test win away from home. The other being v Bangladesh at Dhaka in November 2000 and v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in June this year. He thusequalled the tally of Bishan Singh Bedi and Nawab of Pataudi juniorfor India who have also won three Tests apiece. India has won only 16Tests on foreign soil out of a total of 161 . Following are the luckycaptains:Total
Matches
Won
Lost
Drawn
Ties
Winning %
SC Ganguly
5
3
2
0
0
60.00
Nawab of Pataudi jr.
13
3
10
0
0
23.08
BS Bedi
14
3
8
3
0
21.43
AL Wadekar
11
2
3
6
0
18.18
Kapil Dev
14
2
3
9
0
14.29
SM Gavaskar
18
2
6
10
0
11.11
M Azharuddin
27
1
10
16
0
3.70
Kandy once again proved to be a jinxed venue for Sri Lanka who lost their third successive Test here after taking a 1-0 lead in the series. Englandand South Africa, the previous two countries to tour Sri Lankaearlier, had both conceded a 0-1 lead to the hosts at Galle in theirthree-Test series but equalised at Kandy. Out of a total of 12 Testsplayed at Kandy, Sri Lanka has lost seven, drawn three and won onlytwo.Saurav Ganguly was winning his third Man-of-the-Match award in Tests. His other awards were against England at Nottingham in 1996 and against SriLanka at Mumbai in 1997-98.