On this day in 2006 – Sangakkara and Jayawardene put up world record partnership
Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, two legends of the Sri Lankan cricket team, have ruled world cricket for many years. Both of them have played the role of ‘troubleshooters’ many times and have led their team to great victories.
29th July is a very special day for former captain Jayawardene and Sangakkara. Both of them set a world record in Test cricket on this day in the year 2006, which till date, no pair could even reach near it even if they broke this record.
World record partnership of 624 runs
In the first Test match of the series played in Colombo against South Africa, former right-handed batsman Jayawardene and former left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman Sangakkara registered their name in the record books by sharing 624 runs partnership for the third wicket in the first innings, which is still a world record for any wicket in the history of Test cricket.
South Africa dismissed for 169 runs
In the Colombo Test match, South Africa won the toss and decided to bat first. The first innings of the visiting African team, captained by Ashwell Prince, was bundled out for just 169 runs. For them, AB de Villiers played the highest innings of 65 runs. For Sri Lanka, pacer Dilhara Fernando and spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took 4 wickets each, while 2 wickets went to Farveez Maharoof.
In response, the Sri Lankan team also lost the wickets of both their openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga cheaply. At one point Sri Lanka’s total score was 2 wickets for 14 runs. After this Sangakkara and Jayawardene stepped to the crease. Both batted in such a way that the whole game changed. Sangakkara scored 287 runs while captain Mahela scored a blistering 374 runs.
Sri Lanka reach 756/5
The Sri Lankan team declared their first innings at 756 for 5 thanks to the innings of Jayawardene and Sangakkara. Jacques Rudolph and Hashim Amla got South Africa off to a good start in the second innings. Both shared 165 runs for the first wicket. However, after that, the Proteas team continued to lose wickets. Wicket-keeper batsman Mark Boucher was the highest run-scorer for South Africa in the second innings with 85 runs. South Africa scored 434 runs in the second innings.
Sri Lanka won this Test by an innings and 153 runs. For Sri Lanka, Muttiah Muralitharan took 6 wickets in the second innings while taking a total of 10 wickets in the match.
