Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka, 1st Test – Statistical Highlights

Sri Lanka continued their winning streak in Test Cricket as they registered a 225-run win against Zimbabwe in the first Test match at Harare. In their 100th Test match, Zimbabwe gave their best to avoid a defeat but were bowled out in the final innings of the game with less than 8 overs to go. Here we look at all the stats and records recorded during the game.

1 – First time in Test history, both the captains opened the bowling in the Test by bowling spin. Cremer opened the bowling in Sri Lanka’s 2nd innings while Herath opened in Zimbabwe’s 2nd innings.

4 – Rangana Herath became the 4th Sri Lankan captain to register a win on his captaincy debut in Tests. Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara are the other 3.

5 – Graeme Cremer getting stumped in Rangana Herath’s bowling is only the 8th instance of a captain getting stumped in opposition captain’s bowling in Test cricket. Harry Trott, Richie Benaud (2 times), Bishen Singh Bedi (3 times) and Graeme Smith are the other 4 players like Herath to dismiss opposition’s captain stumped in the longest format.

6 – Graeme Cremer became the 6th captain to receive the man of the match award in Tests while on losing side. The list contains Yallop, Imran Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Chris Gayle and Shakib Al Hasan.

7 – Graeme Cremer became the 7th player to score a century and pick up 4-wicket haul in the same Test as captain. He is the first to do so from Zimbabwe.

10 – Number of wickets Zimbabwe lost in form of LBW in this Test, most for them in a Test and joint 2nd most for a team in a single Test match. Previous most for Zimbabwe was 9 dismissals vs Pakistan in 1993 at Karachi.

10 – Number of LBW dismissals made by Sri Lanka in this Test, joint most by them in a Test match. They made 10 LBW dismissals vs Pakistan in 2009 at Colombo.

How did the game pan out? – ZIM v SL, 1st Test Day 5 Review: Sri Lanka completes unlikely victory

16.77 – Rangana Herath’s bowling average while opening the bowling is the best for anyone in last 100 years. (Min: 300 overs bowled)

234 – Runs added by Zimbabwe after losing their 6th wicket in their first innings, the 2nd most for them in a Test innings. Highest is 274 runs against West Indies in 2004 at Harare.

3888 – Days between Upul Tharanga’s two centuries in Test cricket, the longest interval for any player between his two Test tons since 1950. Previous longest was 3660 days for Hamilton Masakadza.