Madhushanka and Mendis double centuries Sri Lanka tighten grip on Ireland
Nishan Madhushanka and Kusal Mendis struck career-first double centuries as Sri Lanka took on Ireland on the fourth day of the second Test here on Thursday. Sri Lanka declared at 704 for three with openers Madhushanka (205) and Kusal Mendis (245) scoring double centuries. Angelo Mathews (100 not out in 114 balls, six fours, four sixes) also scored a century. This score of Sri Lanka is the highest score on Galle. The previous record was in the name of Bangladesh who scored 638 runs in 2013. The Sri Lankan team will now look to register their 100th Test win on the pitch on the fifth day tomorrow and clean sweep the two-match series.
After trailing by 212 runs on the basis of the first innings, Ireland scored 54 runs for two wickets in the second innings. The team lost the wickets of opener James McCullum (10) and Peter Moore (19). At the end of the day’s play, captain Andy Balbirnie was on 18 while Harry Tector was on seven. Ireland’s team is still 158 runs behind Sri Lanka’s first innings score. Earlier, Sri Lanka started the day with 357 runs for one wicket. Madhushanka 149 while Mendis got out to play ahead of 83 runs. In the first session, Mendis completed his ninth and second consecutive century.
He along with Madhushanka added 132 runs in the morning session. After lunch, Andy McBrine trapped Madhushanka lbw to break the 268-run partnership for the second wicket. Madhushanka hit 22 fours and a six in his innings which lasted almost eight hours. McCollum then gave Mathews a personal score of one run off Graham Hume, taking advantage of which the batsman scored his fastest century. Mendis continued his aggressive approach and hit 11 sixes and 17 fours in his innings. He broke Kumar Sangakkara’s record of most sixes in an innings by a Sri Lankan batsman of eight sixes against Bangladesh in 2014. However, he was caught by Matthew Humphreys at long-off in an attempt to equal Pakistan’s Wasim Akram’s record of 12 sixes in a Test innings.
