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Magnificent hat-trick by Mahela!
With the establishment of the world Test partnership record for the 6th wicket, against India, on 19 November 2009, against India, Sri Lanka now holds four of the 10 Test batting partnership records.
The balance six are accounted for as follows – the tenth being shared by New Zealand and Pakistan (as indicated in the table).
Not only has Sri Lanka, since playing her first Test in 1982, established four of the world batting partnership records out of the 10, but has;
(a) Established the partnership records for the vital second, third and fourth wickets
(b) The highest (624 runs for the third wicket) and the second highest (576 runs for the second wicket) records
(c) Within a period of seven months (in 2009), established two world records, namely the fourth and sixth wicket partnership records
(d) The Sri Lankan batsmen have broken records for the second wicket (Jayasuriya/Mahanama) of 576 runs previously held by Bradman and Fingleton (451 runs) established in 1934.
The fourth (Mahela J./Samaraweera) wicket record of 437 runs was previously held by Peter May and Colin Cowdrey (411) established in 1957 and the sixth wicket (Mahela J and Prasanna J) of 351 runs was previously held by Bradman and Fingleton of 346 runs established in the 1936-37 season. Breaking records that involved the legendary Bradman has been no mean feat, and records, two of which were over 70 years old and the third was over 50 years.
(e) No batsman’s name appears more than once in
these records except that of Mahela’s, who also reached 9,000 Test runs
(9022) – the highest by a Sri Lankan and
(f) His name appears THREE times in these records - in the third,
fourth and the sixth wickets!
