Last Updated on 7 years by Charbel Coorey
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Pakistan v Sri Lanka, 1st Test, Abu Dhabi
For nearly four days, this Test was going nowhere.
But, as can be the case in the UAE, day five threw up some of the biggest surprises in recent memory.
I love stats, so here are 7 awesome ones to come out of an incredible Test Match, where Sri Lanka snatched a memorable victory:
1. Avg. 46.50 (SR 111) vs. 9.87 (SR 28.6)
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| Rangana Herath picked up his 400th Test wicket |
The first innings of this match was hard toil for all involved – batsmen, bowlers and viewers. The spinners didn’t find things easy either, averaging 46.50 and taking a wicket once every 111 balls.
2. History for both Pakistan and Sri Lanka
For Sri Lanka, they have never defended a total lower than the 136 they successfully defended in Abu Dhabi. Their previous best was also against Pakistan, defending 168 in Galle in 2009.
For Pakistan, this was the lowest score that they’ve failed to chase in the fourth innings. Their previous lowest was 146, vs South Africa in Faisalabad in 1997.
History re-written in Abu Dhabi.
3. 419, 422, 138, 135
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| Pakistan crumbled in their chase of 136 |
This Test Match was only the second time in history that both teams were bowled out for under 200 in the second innings, after both posted 400+ in the first innings.
The only other instance was England v South Africa, way back in 1951.
4. Yasir Shah becomes 5th legspinner to take a five-for in four consecutive Tests
The world-class leg-spinner is the first after Richie Benaud, BS Chandrasekhar, Mushtaq Ahmed and Anil Kumble to achieve this feat.
5. Rangana Herath becomes the 1st left arm spinner to take 400 Test wickets
Left arm spinners struggled for quite a while up until a few years ago, and Rangana Herath is a huge reason why left-arm spin is fashionable again.
The champion took just 84 Tests to reach the milestone, which is the 3rd quickest in history. Only Muttiah Muralitharan, Richard Hadlee and Dale Steyn took fewer Tests.
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| Sri Lanka snatched a memorable victory |
6. Scoring over 400 doesn’t make you safe
This was the 7th instance since December 2016 (just 10 months) that a team has made 400 in one of their innings in a Test match, and have lost.
Pakistan have been involved in three of them, losing to Australia in Brisbane (making 450 in the 4th innings), then again to Australia in Melbourne (despite 443/9 in the 1st innings), and here to Sri Lanka after making 422 in their first innings.
7. Franatic final day
15 wickets fell for 183 runs on the final day, after just 24 wickets fell in the previous four days. This was only the tenth time in history that 15 wickets fell on the last day.
This Test match is a strong case for keeping 5-day Test matches, with all the talk of possibly moving to 4-day Tests in the future.
