Sri Lanka beat Ireland again, win the Test series 2-0. Cricket
Prabhat Jayasuriya became the fastest spinner to reach 50 Test wickets and Ramesh Mendis claimed his fourth five-wicket haul as Sri Lanka sealed the series 2-0 with an innings and 10-run win over Ireland on Friday. .
Resuming on 2-54, the Irish batsmen were all out for 202 in extremely hot and humid conditions.
Sri Lankan captain Dumuth Karunaratne said, “The way the bowlers bowled, it was really wonderful.”
“The fast bowlers, the spinners and Ramesh came back very well. The way Asita (Fernando) bowled it was really amazing. If we want to win the series, we need this kind of bowling. Ramesh in the first innings Couldn’t do well. , but he made a good comeback.”
Sri Lanka, who played their first Test match against England in 1982, won the first Test by an innings and 280 runs. Friday’s victory was the country’s 100th Test win.
Ireland have now lost all six matches since making their Test debut against Pakistan in Dublin in 2018.
The Irish fought hard against a strong Sri Lankan bowling effort, which employed a solid plan with Fernando creating seam and bounce on the fifth day’s wicket and the spinners getting some turn.
One of these bouncers hit the helmet of Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie. He was briefly carried off the field but returned to bat before the lunch break when the wicket of Curtis Campher fell. Balbirnie then made 46 before Mendis dismissed Angelo Mathews at mid-off to leave Ireland at 6-143.
Paul Stirling (1), one of two centuries in Ireland’s first innings, did little to propel the scoreboard when Kusal Mendis completed a brilliant low catch at extra cover off left-arm spinner Jayasuriya.
It was Jayasuriya’s 50th Test wicket in his seventh Test match.
West Indian left-arm orthodox Alf Valentine held the previous record from eight Tests. Jayasuriya is the co-second fastest among all bowlers, behind former England seamer Tom Richardson and South African pacer Vernon Philander. Australia’s fast bowler Charlie Turner holds the record among spinners and fast bowlers for the total, having reached the milestone in only six Tests.
Jayasuriya took 10–108 in Sri Lanka’s innings in the first match and 5–174 in the first innings of the second Test. With two wickets needed, he dismissed opener Peter Moore for 49 early in the second innings before claiming the wicket of Stirling.
Sri Lanka made comebacks at regular intervals. Fernando (3-30) was rewarded for some tight bowling when a short ball hit Lorcan Tucker (13) on his ribcage before dribbling into the stumps. He was soon followed by Kampfer, who was caught at leg slip by Kusal Mendis when he attempted to sweep. Ireland took lunch at 5-121.
While Jayasuriya passed a record milestone, Ramesh Mendis (5-64) took the wickets of James McCullum (10), Balbirnie (46), Kampfer (12), Andy McBrine (10) and Graham Hume (10).
However, Harry Tector scored a career-best 85 – his third half-century.
Balbairney said, “We have to take positive things. Taking it to the fifth day was excellent.”
“We know what a good team Sri Lanka are. We need to improve. It’s not easy. We don’t play a lot of red-ball cricket. We have to improve things.”
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification.
