It’s been 4-5 years now that we’ve been talking about Kusal Mendis being the next big thing in international cricket. While e’s shown glimpses of his talent, he’s had controversies surrounding him and hasn’t had time to be consistent across format. However, his form has been good in recent months and today on Day 4 of the 2nd Test vs Ireland at home, he decided to break a few records.
All of Sri Lanka’s top three batsmen got centuries with Nishan Madushka scoring a maiden double century, and captain Dimuth Karunaratne got to 115 as well. This was in response to Ireland’s 492 in their 1st innings, and Mendis decided he wanted to get to triple figures as well. Soon later, he registered his maiden double century as well, and decided to up the ante as well.
Kusal Mendis record 245 vs Ireland
Many records went by as he kept scoring, including going past Mahela Jayawardene to secure the highest Test score by a Sri Lankan batsman at Galle. He also smashed 11 sixes in his innings of 245(291), scoring at a strike rate of 84+. And hitting 11 sixes in a Test innings is not something that has happened too many times before in Test cricket, adding to his list of records broken today on Day 4.
Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum (2), Matthew Hayden, Nathan Astle, and now Mendis hold the joint record for the second most number of sixes in a Test innings, while Wasim Akram tops the list with 12 sixes hit in a Test innings in 1996. Kusal was one big hit away from equalling this record and maybe even going past it, but he was caught on the boundary for 245 by debutant Matthew Humphreys.
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The first two wicket partnerships in this innings were both 200+ while Mendis and Angelo Mathews put up 100+ for the third wicket as well. Mathews continued scoring after Mendis’ dismissal and Sri Lanka’s total kept growing bigger and bigger, at 650/3 at the Tea break on the fourth day of the game. Mendis now holds the record for the most sixes by a Sri Lankan in a Test innings, going past Kumar Sangakkara’s 8 sixes vs Bangladesh in 2014.
Sri Lanka is not inexperienced when it comes to putting up big team totals, as they’re the only team to have score 700+ in a Test innings on six (6) different occasions. Only two of these came at home and they also hold the record for the highest score in Test history (952/6 decl) which came against India way back in 1997.
Sri Lanka will look to increase the pace in the final session of the day and take their lead past 200 if they want to declare and take a chance at the Ireland batting once more. They won the 1st Test by an innings margin, and they’ll be looking to assert their dominance to go 2-0 up in the series as well. For similar cricket updates from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com!
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