All the major stats and facts from the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Durban.
Kusal Perera's unbelievable knock of 153* runs led Sri Lanka to a historic 1 wicket win over South Africa in the first Test at Durban. On the fourth day in the chase of 304 runs Sri Lanka resumed batting on 82/3 and Dale Steyn removed Oshada Fernando and Niroshan Dickwell in the span of three balls and reduced the visitors to 110/5. Kusal Perera and Dananjaya de Silva's 96 runs partnership brought Sri Lanka into the game but Keshav Maharaj broke this partnership and all of a sudden Sri Lanka lost 3 more quick wickets and were reduced to 226/9 but Kusal Perera was rock solid at his end and kept playing his shots and brought up his second Test hundred and his 78* runs unbeaten partnership with Vishwa Fernando guided Sri Lanka to a famous victory.
Brief Scores - South Africa - 235 & 259 and Sri Lanka - 191 & 304/9
Standout Performers -
Kusal Perera - 51 and 153*
Quinton de Kock - 80 and 55
Dale Steyn - 4/48 and 2/71
Vishwa Fernando - 4/62 and 4/71
All the major stats and facts from the first Test between South Africa and Sri Lanka in Durban :
Sri Lanka's 1 wicket win
- Their second 1-wicket win in Test cricket and both wins came against South Africa at Colombo in 2016 and at Durban in 2009.
- Overall 13th time a team won a Test match by just 1 wicket.
- South Africa have now lost three Tests by 1 wicket and 2 of the losses came against Sri Lanka.
1 - Kusal Perera became the first Asian batsman to score a hundred in the 4th innings of Test in South Africa and overall he is the third Sri Lankan batsman to score a Test hundred in South Africa after Thilan Samarweera (2) and Kumar Sangakkara.
2 - This was Sri Lanka's second Test win against South Africa in South Africa and both wins came at Durban in 2011 and now in 2019.
153* - Kusal Perera's 153* is the joint 9th highest individual score in the successful run chases in Test cricket.
Highest individual scores in the successful run chases in Test cricket -
214* - Gordon Greendige vs ENG at Lord's, 1984
182 - Arthur Morris vs ENG at Leeds, 1948
173* - Don Bradman vs ENG at Leeds, 1948
173* - Mark Butcher vs AUS at Leeds, 2001
171* - Younis Khan vs SL at Pallekele, 2015
168 - Seymour Nurse vs NZ at Auckland, 1969
160 - Joe Darling vs ENG at Sydney, 1898
154* - Graeme Smith vs ENG at Birmingham, 2008
153* - Brian Lara vs AUS at Bridgetown, 1999
153* - Kusal Perera vs SA at Durban, 2019
Sri Lanka's successful chase of 304 runs -
- Sri Lanka's 4th highest successful run chase and 2nd highest against South Africa.
- Overall 31st successful chase of 300 or more runs in Test cricket.
- Highest successful run chase by an Asian team in South Africa in Test cricket.
439 - Dale Steyn with 439 wickets went past Kapil Dev and Stuart Broad in this Test and became the 7th leading wicket taker in Test cricket history.