Dinesh Chandimal Smashes Maiden Test Double Century

While the country is going through a little bit of political turmoil, we’re seeing some really good cricket on display by the Sri Lankan national cricket team. Currently, the Australia tour of Sri Lanka 2022 is underway and here, we saw the home team make a fabulous comeback from 0-1 down in the series to win in the 2nd Test and level the series.

Sri Lanka was outplayed in the 1st Test where the visitors ended up winning by 10 wickets. However, the entire team chipped in in the 2nd Test to get an even bigger victory than what Australia served to them in the previous game. They completed a victory of an innings and 39 runs, and what a clinical performance it was indeed at the Galle International Stadium.

Maiden Test double century for Dinesh Chandimal

Australia won the toss in the 2nd Test at Galle and elected to bat first. It was a decent outing for them in the 1st innings as they put up 364 on the board, with Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith scoring centuries. With the ball, Prabath Jayasuriya picked up 6/118 on his Test debut in that innings, and the left-arm spinner would’ve been super delighted with that effort.

Next up was Sri Lanka’s chance to put some runs on the board and they not only reached Australia’s 1st innings score, but surpassed it by a long way as well. Five of their top six batsmen got scores of 50+ and from them, former captain Dinesh Chandimal decided to convert his start into a century, and a big century as well, getting his maiden Test double century.

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From 402/4, they found themselves at 409/6 and that’s when Chandimal decided to take over. Even when they managed to get to 505/9, he refused to give up. He held on to his wicket at one end and put up a 49-run last wicket stand, out of which the number #11 batsman Kasun Rajitha didn’t even score a single run.

He fought and fought till the end, while managing to score his maiden Test double century in the process. He got vital runs for the hosts during the first session and a half of the day, ending with a career-best score of 206*, which included 16 boundaries and 5 sixes. He got his team up to 554 in the 1st innings, securing a lead of 190 runs as well.

In his Test career of 68 matches, Chandimal has scored 13 centuries and this was the first time he got up to the 200-mark. He’s redeveloped his game in the last year or so and this milestone was a truly well-deserved one. At one time during this marathon innings, he even smashed Mitchell Starc for two consecutive sixes, and that’s a lot against one of the fastest bowlers in the world.

From there, Sri Lanka made light work of the rest of the game as they bowled out Australia for just 151, ending the game on Day 4 of the Test match itself, registering an innings victory and once again, Jayasuriya picked up a 6-fer, this time ending with 6/59 in the 2nd innings. He won the Man of the Match award while Chandimal was awarded the Player of the Series.

Dinesh Chandimal scores his maiden double century in Test cricket, also becomes the first Sri Lanka to score a double ton against Australia. What an innings by Chandimal! pic.twitter.com/1iQ2uJj4XS
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) July 11, 2022