Sangakkara stand keeps Sri Lanka alive
Kumar Sangakkara’s glorious one man stand is over, however Sri Lanka has made it to the lunch break on the final day of second test against Australia.
Needing a world record 507 to win, Sri Lanka is 9 for 391 at the long break, with shoddy weather at Hobart forecast for the afternoon.
Sri Lanka lost five wickets in barely an hour, before Sangakkara produced one of finest displays of batting seen in Australia in years. The left hander punished all of the bowlers, with measured hostility. A series of cuts, pulls and elevated drives kept the scoreboard ticking, while he refused to take singles early in overs.
On 192, the highest test score at Bellerive, Sangakkara attempted a pull shot off Clark. The ball ricocheted off his left shoulder and popped up for a waiting Ricky Ponting. Umpire Rudi Kuertzen judged the ball to strike Sangakkara’s bat on the way through. The Sri Lankan dawdled off the arena in a fit of head shaking and personal epithets. Replays would indicate he had every reason to be upset.
Sangakkara’s last four test innings are 200 not out, 222 not out, 57 and 192, for an average of 355.
Mike Hussey eat your heart out.
Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan seemed intent on putting on a show for the hundreds of schoolchildren in attendance, rather than protecting their wicket. In the final over before lunch, Malinga clobbered Clark for back-to-back sixes.
Malinga is 32, Murali 7.
The rot started when Lee had Sanath Jayasuriya caught behind for 45 in the fifth over of the day. Mitchell Johnson dismissed Chamara Silva and Prasanna Jayawardene in successive balls, both for ducks, while Farveez Maharoof and Dilhara Fernando quickly followed. The match looked destined for a finish before midday.
Until Sangakkara exploded.
Lee and Johnson have three wickets each, Clark has two, while Stuart MacGill has again been ineffective, despite picking the wicket of Maharoof.
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