Sri Lanka's wait of 17 years came to an end as they defeated Australia for only the second time in Test cricket having last won in 1999. After being dismissed cheaply in the first innings, the home side fought back bravely to put in a match-winning performance at Pallekele on Saturday.
While 21-year-old Kusal Mendis was the hero with the bat in the second innings for Sri Lanka, it was the 38-year-old Rangana Herath who helped the hosts to a 106-run win in the first Test. Although Peter Nevill and Steve O’Keefe gave their best in attempting to defy the Sri Lankan bowlers with their patient four-run partnership, it was not enough to save the visitors from losing their first Test since the 2015 Ashes.
Here are the major stats from the game:
0.13 – The run rate of the partnership between Peter Nevill and Steve O’Keefe. This is the lowest run rate for any wicket stand in Test cricket. They put on 4 runs in 178 balls for the ninth wicket in the fourth innings.
1 – This Test loss is Steven Smith's first loss as a Test captain. Smith has 7 wins and 4 draws in the 12 Tests he has captained.
1 – The number of runs that David Warner scored in this Test match. This is second lowest ever for an Australian opener after Mark Taylor's pair against Pakistan.
2 – This is only the second Test match ever that Sri Lanka has won against Australia since the first playing a Test series against the Aussies during the 1982/83 season.
2 – Steven Smith's half-century in the fourth innings of the match was only the second 50-plus knock in the Test after Kusal Mendis’ 176.
2 – Kusal Mendis’ knock of 176 is the second highest maiden Test knock. The highest knock is 201* held by Brendon Kuruppu, scored against New Zealand in 1987.
3 – Nathan Lyon became the third non-Asian off-spinner to pick up more than 200 Test wickets. The other two are Lance Gibbs (309) and Graeme Swann (255).
7 – This was Australia's seventh consecutive Test loss in Asia. Before losing against Sri Lanka, they had lost four Test matches in India, followed by a 2-0 defeat by Pakistan.
15 – The number of LBW dismissals in this Test match are the highest ever in a Test match held in Sri Lanka. This is the fifth most number of LBW dismissals in any Test match.
53 – The total number of runs scored by all the openers in the four innings of this Test match. This is second lowest aggregate ever in Test cricket, with the West Indies v England match in 1934/35 having the lowest aggregate.
55 – Nathan Lyon took 55 Test matches to reach 200 Test wickets. This is the second highest for any Australian bowler, with only Peter Siddle (58) having taken more Tests.
154 – The number of balls that Australia faced without scoring a single run before becoming all-out. This is highest ever in Test cricket history, with the previous highest being by Roly Jenkins & Johnny Wardle for ENG vs WI at Lord's in 1950. 138 of the 154 balls were faced by the pair of Peter Nevill and Steve O’Keefe, while the remaining 16 balls were faced by Steve O’Keefe and Josh Hazlewood.
176 – Kusal Mendis’ century in Sri Lanka's second innings made him the youngest Sri Lankan batsman to score a century against Australia. He was 21y, 177d. The record was previously held by Romesh Kaluwitharana.
176 – This is Kusal Mendis’ highest score in Tests. His previous highest was 53. This is also the highest individual Test score at Pallekele. Mendis’ knock was also the second highest Test knock against Australia, after Kumar Sangakkara's 192 at Hobart in 2007.
2967 – Steven Smith has scored the highest number of runs in Tests since the start of 2014. Smith has scored 2967 runs in 26 matches at an average of 78.07, scoring 12 hundreds and 12 fifties.
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