SA's rare SL win, Sangakkara's elite club

Stats highlights from South Africa's rare Test win in Sri Lanka, at Galle

20-Jul-2014

Kumar Sangakkara plays on the off side, Sri Lanka v South Africa, 1st Test, Galle, 3rd day, July 18, 2014

This was South Africa's third win in 11 Tests in Sri Lanka and their first win in three visits to the island. Their last win came in the 2000 tour in Kandy when they beat the hosts by a margin of seven runs. Barring Australia, Sri Lanka is the only away/neutral country were South Africa have lost more Tests than they have won since their readmission to international cricket.

This was South Africa's 14th Test win in the subcontinent since their readmission. Their win-loss ratio of 1.40 during this period is the best among teams in away Tests, played in the subcontinent.

The year 2014 has already seen seven away wins in 16 Tests. Last year, there were only two wins in 41 Tests by touring teams, both of them coming against Zimbabwe who were beaten by Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Dale Steyn's 9 for 99 are the best bowling figures by a fast bowler in Tests at Galle. Morne Morkel's 7 for 78 in this match also beat the previous best figures by a fast bowler at this venue - Waqar Younis' 7 for 79 in 2000.

The 16 wickets shared between Steyn and Morkel in this match equal the most taken by a fast-bowling pair in a Test in Sri Lanka. Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa also took 16 wickets in a Test against West Indies at the SSC in 2001-02. The tally is also the second-highest by a team's fast bowlers in Galle. Pakistan's fast bowlers took 17 of the 20 Sri Lanka wickets to fall in a Test in 2000, which are the most taken by a team's fast bowlers in a match at this venue.

Kumar Sangakkara played a lone hand for Sri Lanka in their second innings scoring 76 runs. This was his ninth fifty-plus score in 13 innings this year. He has already scored 1036 Test runs in 2014, at an average of 86.33, the first batsman to aggregate those many runs this year. His last nine innings have produced one triple-hundred, two hundreds and five fifties.

Sangakkara has now aggregated 1000-plus runs in an year five times in his career. He becomes only the sixth Test batsmen to hit 1000-plus runs in a calendar year five or more times. Sachin Tendulkar achieved it six times. Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Brian Lara did it five times each. Including Sangakkara's five, there have been only 12 such instances by Sri Lanka batsmen. Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela Jayawardene are the other Sri Lanka batsmen to do it more than once.

Quinton de Kock took five catches in Sri Lanka's second innings taking his tally of dismissals for the match to nine. This is the sixth time a South Africa wicketkeeper has made nine or more dismissals in a Test. AB de Villiers' 11 dismissals against Pakistan in Johannesburg last year are the most in a match by a South Africa wicketkeeper.

Imran Tahir bowled 19 overs in Sri Lanka's second innings without taking a wicket. However, South Africa's part-time spinner JP Duminy bowled ten overs that fetched him the wickets of Sangakkara and Rangana Herath. Duminy was clearly the better spinner for South Africa in this match, taking 3 for 85 from 25 overs. Tahir took 1 for 139 from his 45 overs in this match.

This is Sri Lanka's fifth loss in 18 Tests at home since Muttiah Muralitharan's retirement from Tests and they have managed only four wins during this period. Sri Lanka's win-loss ratio of 0.80 during this period is far inferior to their record at home before Muralitharan's retirement. In Tests since 2000 and up to Muralitharan's retirement, Sri Lanka had won 32 of the 54 Tests they played at home and lost 11 for a win-loss ratio of 2.90. Only 11 Tests had resulted in a draw during this period.

Sri Lanka South Africa Sri Lanka vs South Africa South Africa tour of Sri Lanka

Shiva Jayaraman is a sub-editor (stats) at ESPNcricinfo.com