In Numbers: Perera's Heroics Breaks Into All-Time Record Books

Cricketnext Staff | Updated: February 16, 2019, 10:07 PM IST

Sri Lanka's sensational one-wicket victory over South Africa in the first Test at Kingsmead on Saturday was achieved on the back of what will go down as one of the country's greatest test match innings by an unlikely hero in Kusal Perera.

The swashbuckling middle-order batsman scored 153, adding a record 78 for the final wicket with number 11 Vishwa Fernando, who batted for 73 minutes, desperately holding the South African attack at bay.

This was Sri Lanka’s 4^thhighest successful chase in Tests and highest away from home.

The 78-run stand was the highest unbroken tenth-wicket partnership to win a Test match, surpassing Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed’s 57 against Pakistan in Karachi.

Perera too broke a slew of records, including the second highest individual score in the fourth innings of a Test for Sri Lanka and level with West Indian legend Brian Lara (above due to number of balls played) as the highest by a batsman batting at #5 or lower in a successful chase.

Sri Lanka also became only the second sub-continental side to successfully chase a target in South Africa, after Pakistan chased 191 in 2007 in Port Elizabeth.