Player of the Match
Player of the Match
1864dThe Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo

Dickwella, Gunaratne star in record chase

Sri Lanka pursued 388 - the highest successful chase on the island - with fifties from Niroshan Dickwella and Asela Gunaratne

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

CR Ervine
CR Ervine
160(256) 13x4 - 1x6
Control %92%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 23 runs
  • 0x4 - 0x6
19 20 30 16 8 28 11 28
Sikandar Raza
Sikandar Raza
127(205) 9x4 - 1x6
Control %94%
  • Productive Shot
  • on drive
  • 22 runs
  • 2x4 - 1x6
6 17 11 10 29 13 27 14

Best performances - Bowlers

HMRKB Herath
HMRKB Herath
O39.1
M5
R133
W6
Eco3.39
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
1W3W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W
HMRKB Herath
HMRKB Herath
O32
M4
R116
W5
Eco3.62
RHB
OFFLEG
1W1W
1W2W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF

Match Details

Toss

Zimbabwe , elected to bat first

Player Of The Match

Player Of The Series

Series result

Sri Lanka won the one-off match

Match number

Season

Hours of play (local time)

10am start, Lunch 12.00-12.40, Tea 14.40-15.00, Close 17.00

Match days

14,15,16,17,18 July 2017 (5-day match)

Reserve Umpire

Match Referee

Scorecard Summary

ZIMBABWE 356(94.4 OVERS)
1ST INNINGS

SRI LANKA 346(102.3 OVERS)
1ST INNINGS

ZIMBABWE 377(107.1 OVERS)
2ND INNINGS

SRI LANKA 391/6(114.5 OVERS)
2ND INNINGS

Commentator: Akshay Gopalakrishnan

Sri Lanka stand behind the Champions banner as well-deserved winners. They maintain their proud record at home, and what a start Dinesh Chandimal has had to his captaincy career. This has been a famous win for Sri Lanka. This Test will be spoken of for a long, long time. Sri Lanka will rejoice for now, but it will be back to work pretty soon with a tough series against India looming. This is all we have from here. The first of the Women's World Cup semifinals has just got underway, so do switch tabs to catch out coverage of that. From here, it's goodbye from myself and Deiva. Thank you for joining us!

mo: "Some grounds are just destined to be in the record books. Only 9 Tests played at the Premadasa yet the highest Test score of all time as well as the highest successful chase in Asia have been made here."

"It's been a really good five days, so credit goes to all the players, they stuck to the plans and went there and did their best,"says Dinesh Chandimal. "It's always tough when you're batting in the fourth innings but I told the team that they should play their normal game and they played some outstanding innings, especially Dickwella and Asela. Of course,it's always challenging as a captain but it's about doing the right things on and off the field. It (series against India) is obviously a tough challenge for us. As a team, everyone does their best, and I hope they will do the same against India."

"Disappointing but credit to Sri Lanka, to chase 380 on a day-five pitch is pretty special," says Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer. "So credit to them, but credit to our guys as well. The way the guys fought and got the runs on the board and pushed Sri Lanka till he last day was great. We don't play enough Test cricket, so it'shard sometimes making decisions out there, but there is a lot to learn from this Test match. The one-day series is a high point for us, we brought that confidence into the Test match and it gave us the belief that we could push the big teams."

Rangana Herath is the Player of the series. "I know I have bowled a lot of overs, but when you still enjoy playing cricket, I wouldn't mind bowling more in future," he says. "Good to hear that I went past those guys. Overall, this Test match was very good. They were playing sweeps and reverse sweeps,which made it hard for us. But we played better than Zimbabwe, that is why we are here."

Asela Gunaratne is the Player of the Match. Asela Gunaratne says he is extremely happy with the way he played, despite not being fully fit.

This is only third time in Tests that all four innings have been between 300 and 400.

Perera raises his arms and punches the air. Handshakes from both sides. Spare a thought for Zimbabwe. They stayed in this until the very end. They began the year with defeats to Scotland and Afghanistan, but they have plenty to be proud of after this tour. Won the ODI series, nearly pulled off their first Test against Sri Lanka. Zimbabwe are gathered into a huddle. They deserve a word of appreciation for the fight they have shown. Cremer finally puts on a feeble smile as shakes the hand of the opposition captain. He bowled his heart out. For 48 overs, he gave it his all, but Zimbabwe faltered towards the very end, fluffing a few chances. Regis Chakabva had a torrid day behind the stumps but he will come out of this with a world of experience. Questions will be asked of that decision from C Shamshuddin that enabled Dickwella to survive. From there, Sri Lanka never looked back, and pulled off the highest successful chase in Sri Lanka, and the fifth-highest of all time. Stay tuned, we will bring the presentations to you shortly.

Samraat: "Series started with highest ODI chase in SL and Now ended with highest successful chase in Test in SL.Perfect !!!!!!!!!"

Ananda: "Sri Lanka deserved to win and they did. Very few people gave them a chance. Beating this Zimbabwe team is no easy task. They are no pushovers. Well done Zimbabwe too. Hope you get more test matches against top sides. "

Thinus: "I would rather vote for Raza as the MOM. That second innings recovery was amazing!"

Uday: "Wish there was another Test match between these two teams - one off Tests should be scrapped."

114.5
4
Williams to Perera, FOUR, fuller outside off, driven through covers, and that seals it
114.4
0
Williams to Perera, no run, full on middle and leg, defended
114.3
0
Williams to Perera, no run, pitches outside leg and hits him on the pad as he comes forward to defend
114.2
0
Williams to Perera, no run, brings out the sweep but the ball pitches outside leg and he makes no contact
114.1
1
Williams to Gunaratne, 1 run, short of a length, pulled straight to deep midwicket. Just the one. Scores level

ZCFOutkast: "No disrespect to Herath and Cremer, but Craig Ervine must be THE Man of the Match. Without him there wouldn't have been much of a MATCH."

114.1
1w
Williams to Gunaratne, 1 wide, pitches outside leg, tries to tuck but pulls his bat out late

Sri Lanka one hit away from a historic win.

Multiple centurions

2000

The last time multiple Zim batsmen scored hundreds in a Test against an opposition other than B'desh. In 2000, the Flower brothers and Campbell scored 100s v India