Sri Lanka pair set world record stand

Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardena and Thilan Samaraweera have broken the 52-year-old world record for fourth wicket Test partnerships, going past the old mark of 411 runs on the second day of the first Test against Pakistan.

The Sri Lanka captain Jayawardena scored a single off Shoaib Malik to break the record set by England's Peter May and Colin Cowdrey against the West Indies at Edgbaston in 1957.

The duo scored 437 runs in 108.3 overs to set a new world record for the fourth wicket stand in Test cricket.
Jayawardena scored 240 runs in 424 balls with 32 boundaries, while Samaraweera scored 231 runs in 318 balls with the help of 31 boundaries.

It all began when Samaraweera joined his skipper Jayawardena at the crease, on Saturday, in the 39th over of the game with the team already well poised at 177 for 3. The skipper had already scored 41 runs at the time.

Opener Malinda Warnapura and one-down batsman Kumar Sangakkara had previously struck half centuries to put Sri Lank in command on the opening day of the first Test against Pakistan – which is playing its first Test in 14 months.

At the end of the first day of the Test, Samaraweera’s good strike rate saw him catch up with his skipper, in terms of runs scored. He scored 130 off 155 balls while his skipper scored 136 in a fourth wicket stand that had already reached 229 runs with the team score on 409-3.

Jayawardena, however, was dropped thrice on the first day of play by Pakistan.

On the second day, the pair piled up the lead as they played out the entire first session without losing their wickets.

It was in the post-lunch session that both batsmen bought up their respective double centuries. This was Samaraweera’s first double century in his 48 Test matches while it marked the fifth occasion that Jayawardena had notched up a score in excess of 200 runs.

As they crossed the 600-run mark and looked to pile on the lead, however, both batsmen were dismissed in successive overs. Shoaib Malik was responsible for the wicket of the Lankan skipper who was caught behind by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal after the ball lobbed onto his glove.

Samaraweera was clean bowled in the very next over by Danish Kaneria. Both batsmen fell with the team score on 614.

This is Jayawardena’s last series as captain of Sri Lanka while this is the first series where Pakistan’s Younus Khan is captaining his country.