Galle: Nishan Madushka and Kusal Mendis both made double centuries against Ireland on Thursday as Sri Lanka’s top four batsmen all hit hundreds for only the third time in Test history.
The hosts declared their first innings on 704 for three after tea on the fourth day of the second Test, 212 runs ahead.
Sri Lanka had just over a day to secure a win and a 2-0 series victory that would maintain the visitors’ 100 per cent losing record in Tests.
Maiden Test century
Madushka converted his maiden Test century into a double hundred when he cut Matthew Humphreys for four, becoming the second-youngest Sri Lankan to score a Test 200 after Mahela Jayawardene.
He was dismissed for 205 in the third over after lunch, lbw to Andy McBrine, with Ireland successfully reviewing the decision after the initial appeal was turned down.
Madushka’s marathon knock lasted six minutes short of eight hours after he faced 339 deliveries and hit 22 fours and a six.
Third time lucky
Mendis, Sri Lanka’s captain-in-waiting who had twice been dismissed in the 190s, reached his first Test 200 by pushing a Ben White delivery behind square to steal a single.
He amassed 245 runs and was one short of Wasim Akram’s world record of 12 sixes in a Test innings before he was caught at long-off attempting to equal that mark.
Early reprieve
Angelo Mathews was dismissed for a duck in the first Test and was put down on one this match, but made the most of his reprieve to post his 16th Test hundred.
That gave the hosts their quadruple-centurions entry in the history books, after India against Bangladesh in 2007 and Pakistan against Sri Lanka in 2019.
Captain Dimuth Karunaratne, who scored 115 on Wednesday, declared immediately.
Their total of 704 for three was also the highest-ever score in Galle, eclipsing Bangladesh’s 638 all out in 2013.
