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Record Stand from
Sangakkara-Jayawardene puts Sri Lanka in an
almighty position |
July 28, 2006
South Africa is facing an inevitable innings
defeat at the SSC, Colombo with Sri Lanka ending
the second day's play at 485 for 2, a first
innings lead of 316! Yes, the wickets lost in
the Sri Lankan innings was still two, which
means that the Proteas couldn't even get a
single wicket in today's play and were taken for
two double centuries by the overnight batsmen -
Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. It
looked as if the two teams had batted on two
different pitches but that was mainly because of
the pressure that the South African batsmen
created on themselves in their first innings.
The pitch is for sure a bowlers' graveyard
although someone like Murali can run through any
batting line up on any pitch.
It was a new world record created by the two
dashing stroke players Sangakkara and
Jayawardene, they now hold the record for the
highest 3rd wicket partnership in the history of
the game. The partnership is still unbroken at
471 and it could be a lot more once play resumes
on the third day and given the history of Sri
Lankan Cricket, they are not a team who wouldn't
resist from going for the records given an
opportunity instead of rapping up the match in
quick time. Andrew Jones-Martin Crowe is the
unlucky pair, whose previous record of 467 for
the 3rd wicket has vanished on the 28th of July,
2006. The highest partnership for any wicket is
576 between Roshan Mahanama and Sanath
Jayasuriya in that famous Test Match in 1997
against India. Sangakkara and Jayawardene would
be looking to target that record, but it might
be difficult for Sri Lanka to repeat the 952 for
6.
Sri Lanka resuming at an overnight total of 128
for 2, survived the initial burst from the South
Africans and once Sangakkara and Jayawardene got
their eye in, it was all leather hunt for the
Proteas. There was hardly any assistance for the
South African fast bowlers Makhaya Ntini and
Dale Steyn. Infact, they looked ordinary on this
slow and low track and nothing has to be taken
away from their efforts. At lunch time,
Sangakkara had comfortably gone past his hundred
and Mahela Jayawardene was hanging in there at
99, Lankans added 99 runs in the 26 overs. The
Afternoon session saw almost the same pace
maintained by the two batsmen with 93 runs added
in 29 overs, but in doing so, both batsmen were
well into the 140s. The last session saw records
tumbling with both batsmen reaching their double
hundreds, and by then the South African bowlers
had tired enough to bowl plenty of loose
deliveries. The final session saw the real
plundering with 165 coming in 31 overs. Four
overs were lost due to bad light and at Stumps,
Kumar Sangakkara had scored 5 runs more than
Mahela Jayawardene, who was on 224. Sangakkara
had hit 31 fours with his 229 coming in 307
balls and Jayawardene's 224 coming in 356 balls
with 27 fours and a six.
South Africa is in a no way out situation and
they can only be saved by thunderstorms, it
looks like. The bowlers need to forget about
this game pretty soon as they might have been
severely affected in their minds after today's
slaughtering. The Proteas might aim to go down
fighting, but that doesn't look to be a
possibility looking at their poor approach with
the bat in their first innings, in particular
their Skipper Ashwell Prince, who crumbled under
the pressure.
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