STATS: 3rd Time England Pacers Wicketless in Win

England, led by their spinners, defeated Sri Lanka in the 2nd Test match of the 3-match series against Sri Lanka in Pallekele by a margin of 57 runs. And with this victory, they have won the series with a match still to be played.

Here are some of the statistical highlights of the Pallekele Test match:

38 – Number of wickets taken by the spinners (from both teams) in this second Test match, the other two wickets were a wicket to Suranga Lakmal (pacer) and a run-out. This is the most picked up by spinners in a single Test match ever. The previous highest were the 37 wickets in a Test match between India and New Zealand in Kanpur in the year 1969.

3 – The 57-run victory for England in the 2nd Test match against Sri Lanka is only the third instance that England have won a Test match with their pacers not picking up a single wicket. England quick bowlers James Anderson, Sam Curran and Ben Stokes are all wicketless in this Test match. The other two such instances for England were against Australia in 1956 and against India in 1952.

17 – Number of years England took to register their first series victory in Sri Lanka since their last victory in this country. It was in 2001 where they last won a Test series in Sri Lanka – won a 3-match series by a margin of 2-1. This is also only the second Test series victory for England in Sri Lanka in which 2 or more Test matches were played.

6 for 115 – Bowling figures of Akila Dananjaya in the 2nd innings of this 2nd Test match. These are his best bowling figures in Test match cricket while his third five-wicket haul in this format of the game. 5 for 24 against Bangladesh in Dhaka earlier in February this year were his previous best figures in a single Test innings.

4 – Four times in four innings Sri Lankan off-spinner Dilruwan Perera has dismissed England all-rounder Ben Stokes in the first 2 Test matches of the 3-match series. Coincidentally, Stokes was dismissed as ‘bowled’ two times in the 1st Test and LBW two times in the second Test match. Only India’s Ravichandran Ashwin has dismissed Stokes more in this format of the game – 7 times in 8 matches.

Keep reading ReadScoops.com for more updates from England tour of Sri Lanka 2018.

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