Kusal stuns Australians with an unbeaten 169 (243 balls, 20x4, 1x6) as Sri Lanka get back in the game at Pallekele on Day 3
Kusal Mendis raises his bat and helmet in celebration after scoring a century (100 runs) during the third day of their opening Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele. Pic/AFP
Pallekele: A brilliant maiden century by Kusal Mendis helped Sri Lanka claw their way back into contention in the first Test against Australia yesterday and open up a 196-run lead before play was suspended early due to bad light.
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Kusal Mendis raises his bat and helmet in celebration after scoring a century (100 runs) during the third day of their opening Test match between Sri Lanka and Australia at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele. Pic/AFP
At the close of play on the third day in Pallekele, Sri Lanka had reached 282 for six, with Mendis unbeaten on 169, as the hosts gained the upper hand in a gripping contest against the world's number one Test team. Mendis' knock was the highest score by any Sri Lankan against Australia at home and came after no player from either side had managed to even score a half century in the first innings.
Mendis, who came to the crease in the first over of the day after the early dismissal of Dimuth Karunaratne, hardly put a foot wrong in his 243-ball innings which has so far featured 20 boundaries. He played Australia's seamers with confidence before cutting loose against the spin bowlers with an array of boundaries.
He reached his century in spectacular fashion when he slog-swept Nathan Lyon for six and then reached his 150 by cutting the same bowler for four. The 21-year-old, playing in his seventh Test, is closing in on the record score by a Sri Lankan against Australia and now only needs to overhaul Kumar Sangakkara's 192 at Hobart in 2007.
The visitors' bowlers struggled in the absence of spinner Steve O'Keefe who pulled a hamstring, as first Dinesh Chandimal and then Dhananjaya de Silva gave Mendis some solid support.
Mendis and Chandimal put on 117 runs in their fifth wicket partnership. After Chandimal was out lbw for 42 off Marsh's bowling, the debutant de Silva then scored 36 in a partnership worth 71 before becoming Lyon's 200th Test victim, caught at long-on by Usman Khawaja.
Sri Lanka only managed another eight runs before bad light and then rain brought an early end to proceedings for the third afternoon in a row but they now have an unlikely sniff of victory.
1
Number of batsmen to score 150 or more in a Test innings against Australia at an younger age than Mendis' 21 years and 177 days. Graeme Pollock scored 175, at the age of 19 years and 331 days, at the Adelaide Oval in 1963-64 is the youngest to score 150-plus against Australia
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