Records galore for Mathews and Mendis
For the first time in more than ten years, no wicket fell in an entire day of Test cricket
S Rajesh
18-Dec-2018
22 Instances of no wickets falling through an entire day's play in a Test match. The last time it happened was more than ten years ago, in February 2008, when South Africa scored 405 without loss on the opening day against Bangladesh in Chittagong.
239 Runs added by Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis through the entire day. The last time fewer runs were scored on a wicketless day was in 1986 in Mumbai, when 235 runs were scored without a wicket on the fourth day.
246* The partnership so far between Mathews and Mendis, which is Sri Lanka's highest in the second innings of a Test. They went past the earlier record of 240* between Gurusinha and Ranatunga in the 1986 Test against Pakistan, when the pair was unseparated through the fifth day. This is the first time a Sri Lankan pair has added 200-plus runs in the second innings of a Test outside Asia.
4 Higher partnerships that have happened in the third or fourth innings of a Test match in New Zealand. This is currently the second-best by an overseas pair in the second innings in New Zealand, behind only to the 281 that Graham Thorpe and Andrew Flintoff added in 2002. Five of the top six such partnerships in New Zealand have come in Wellington, which indicates that the pitch here usually gets easier to bat on in the second innings.
5 Instances of Sri Lanka's batsmen batting an entire day without losing a wicket. The first time they did it was against Pakistan at the P Sara Oval in 1986, when Asanka Gurusinha and Arjuna Ranatunga batted through the fifth day. In the 1997 Test against India, Sanath Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama batted through the third and fourth days, during their 576-run second-wicket partnership.
2 Instances of two Sri Lankan batsmen scoring hundreds in the second innings of a Test outside Asia. The only other time it happened was also in New Zealand, way back in 1995, when Gurusinha and Hashan Tillakaratne got hundreds in a drawn game in Dunedin. Overall, this is the 11th time two Sri Lankan batsmen have scored centuries in the second innings of a Test.
35.10 New Zealand's runs per wicket with the ball in the second innings during Tests in the last ten years (since January 2009). It's the poorest among all teams.
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats