SL vs NZ: Dimuth Karunaratne breaches Galle fort with record-breaking ton

Four months ago, the name of Dimuth Karunaratne appeared everywhere. It was because he was appointed as the captain of the Sri Lankan World Cup team when he had last played an ODI four years ago. Now he is back in the news but for a far more pleasant reason. The Sri Lankan Test captain struck a fine 122 to lead his side to their third consecutive Test win. He went past quite a few milestones in the process.

Conquering the Galle

After conceding a trail of 18 runs in their first innings, New Zealand found themselves in trouble once again at 124/6. Left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya led the rout but soon Kiwis found a way to fight back. BJ Watling and the tail added 161 runs for the last four wickets, setting Sri Lanka a target of 268 runs to win the Test.

Chasing 268 on the fourth and fifth day at Galle challenged the record books. No team had successfully chased more than 100 runs in the final innings of a Test at this venue. The previous best belonged to Sri Lanka who had chased 99 versus Pakistan in 2014.

However, the century from Karunaratne changed that. The chase of 268 now ranks as the fourth-highest on the Sri Lankan soil and highest-ever at the Galle International Stadium.

Fourth-innings special

Scoring a century in the fourth innings of the Test is the crown jewel of any batsman’s career. This 122 was Karunaratne’s first hundred in the final innings, his previous highest was 97. He became only the third Sri Lankan opener to celebrate a ton in the fourth quarter of the game after Sanath Jayasuriya (1996 and 2004) and Kusal Mendis (2018).

The winning hat-trick

Emulating the feats of Rangana Herath and Suranga Lakmal, Karunaratne became the third Sri Lankan captain to win his first three Tests. Sri Lanka defeated South Africa 2-0 in South Africa earlier this year and have now beaten the Blackcaps as well.

Result streak

Sri Lanka’s six-wicket win was the 25th consecutive decisive Test on the Sri Lankan soil. The last drawn Test in the island nation was played in July 2014 where South Africa survived the day with only two wickets remaining. This is the second-longest such streak in Test cricket history. Australia witnessed a streak of 87 decisive games which began in 1882.

Well done boys Super effort….???#SLvsNZ #testchampionship pic.twitter.com/B7ElQ6mNBV

— Dimuth Karunaratne (@IamDimuth) August 18, 2019