ON THIS DAY in 1997, Sri Lanka finished the final day of the 1st Test match at 952-6, in response to India’s 537 all out.
It remains the highest team score in a Test innings. Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama scored 340 and 225 respectively and batted throughout the 3rd and 4th day.
In this run-scoring spree, a young 20-year-old Mahela Jayawardana Smade his Test debut.
His turn came late on the fifth afternoon. He grabbed the opportunity with both hands to make a 66 in 105 balls at 6. In a recent Interview with NewsWire Mahela Jayawardana was questioned on why Sri Lanka didn’t go for the historic 1000 runs mark as there was nearly 1 hour left in the game, when Sri Lanka declared.
“At tea we had an idea but later we felt it was not good to keep batting. We had not given India to bat even in the last day so we decided to call of the game” Mahela said.
“Also Premadasa ground score board only had 3 digits, they would have struggled to show 1000” Mahela said.
The post WATCH : On this day in 1997, Sri Lanka declared at 952-6, Mahela explains why Sri Lanka didn’t push for 1000 runs appeared first on NewsWire.
from Sports – NewsWire https://ift.tt/3ia9eGo