Tag: Sri Lanka vs Ireland Test

GALLE: Ramesh Mendis took five wickets and Prabath Jayasuriya became the fastest-ever spinner to 50 Test wickets Friday as Sri Lanka thrashed Ireland by an innings and 10 runs in the second Test.

The hosts swept the two-match series in Galle 2-0, recording their 100th Test win and leaving the tourists still seeking a first victory in cricket’s longest format.

Harry Tector fought a lone last-day rearguard action to try to bat out a draw, scoring 85 and mounting a 41-run stand for the ninth wicket, but Mendis took 5-64 as Ireland were bowled out for 202 in their second innings.

Asitha Fernando bowled Tector with a yorker to end the resistance and accounted for last man Ben White with the very next ball to wrap up another emphatic win in style.

The visitors posted 492 in their first innings — among the highest-ever scores to be followed by an innings defeat.

After Sri Lanka declared on 704-3, Ireland resumed their second innings on 54-2, hoping to hold on for a draw on a track still good for batting.

But Jayasuriya dismissed Paul Stirling in the fourth over of the morning to become the quickest-ever spinner to take 50 wickets, in just seven Tests.

Fellow left-armer Alf Valentine of West Indies had taken eight games to the milestone more than seven decades earlier.

Mendis removed first-innings centurion Curtis Campher when he swept one straight into the hands of Kusal Mendis at leg-slip, and took his third wicket of the innings when captain Andy Balbirnie drove one straight to Angelo Mathews at mid-off on 46.

Mendis then dismissed Andy McBrine and Graham Hume in successive overs to claim his fourth five-wicket haul.

Sri Lanka won the first Test by an innings and 280 runs.

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GALLE: Ireland posted their highest Test score of 492 on Tuesday as Paul Stirling and Curtis Campher became only the third and fourth Irishmen to hit centuries in cricket’s longest format.

Before rain stopped play on day two in Galle, in reply Sri Lanka were 81 without loss, 411 runs behind, with Nishan Madushka unbeaten on 41 and Dimuth Karunaratne 39 not out.

But the day belonged to Ireland, with Stirling scoring 103 and Campher 111 after captain Andy Balbirnie made 95 on day one.

Lorcan Tucker scored a useful 80 while Prabath Jayasuriya, the home hero of the first Test, took five wickets for 174. Asitha Fernando and Vishwa Fernando took two wickets each.

Ireland only gained Test status in 2017 and have lost all five games so far.

The previous highest Test score was 339 against Pakistan in their inaugural match in 2018.

In punishingly hot and humid conditions, Stirling had retired hurt with cramps on Monday after reaching 74, but came back to the crease on Tuesday after Tucker fell.

Stirling reached his maiden Test hundred in style, upper-cutting Asitha Fernando for six over deep point. He now has centuries in all three formats of the game.

Soon afterwards the same bowler dismissed Stirling for 103 as the batsman hooked a short delivery into the hands of Dhananjaya de Silva on the fine-leg boundary.

Campher was well caught by a diving De Silva at first slip to give Jayasuriya his third wicket in the innings.

Sri Lanka’s openers negotiated the final session without much trouble although Ireland’s quicks found the outside edge of the bat of Madushka with the new ball.

Ireland lost the first Test by an innings and 280 runs.

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GALLE: Sri Lanka thrashed Ireland by an innings and 280 runs on Tuesday, in one of the biggest winning margins in Test history and the largest by the South Asian nation.

In what was also Ireland’s biggest defeat to date, the visitors were all out for 168 on day three in a hot and humid Galle International Stadium.

It was the 12th-largest innings victory in Test history, behind England’s win over the West Indies in 2007 by an innings and 283 runs.

Sri Lanka’s previous biggest win was when they hammered Zimbabwe by an innings and 254 runs in 2004 in Bulawayo.

Sri Lanka in their first innings declared on a mammoth 591 for 6.

Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne top scored with 179 runs while Kusal Mendis posted 140. Dinesh Chandimal and Sadeera Samarawickrama then hit unbeaten hundreds.

Sri Lanka then bowled out Ireland for 143 and enforced the follow-on, finishing the job just after tea on day three.

Prabath Jayasuriya took three wickets in Ireland’s second innings, adding to his seven in the first innings.

Ireland’s Harry Tector top-scored for the visitors in the second innings with 42.

Ireland have now lost all five of their matches since securing Test status in 2017.

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