11th September is a great day for Sri Lankan cricket. A couple of their memorable victories came on this date. In fact, their first Test win was completed on 11th September 1985 against India.
It was a strong Indian side who won the World Cup two years back and the World Championship of Cricket that year. However, the Sri Lankans bowled brilliantly to get them out in pretty low scores both the time.
But before that their batsmen put up 385 runs in the first innings, thanks to a century from the wicket-keeper Amal Silva, opening the batting. There were also a 95 from Roy Dias and a couple of fifties from Ranjan Madugalle and Duleep Mendis. Indians had a terrible start and were 3/3 when some recovery was made by Kris Srikkanth(64) and the night watchman Laxman Sivaramakrishnan (18). Although there were fifties from Sunil Gavaskar and Mohinder Amarnath in the middle order, India could only score 244 and conceded a lead of 141 runs. Sri Lanka put up 206/3 in quick time in the second innings with fifties from Aravinda de Silva and Roy Dias. A target of 348 was too much for India and only the captain Kapil Dev put up some sort of resistance by scoring 78. He was the last man to be dismissed for 198 and Sri Lanka won the match by 149 runs. It was a memorable match for Sri Lankan pace bowler Rumesh Ratnayake who finished with nine wickets in the match.
On the same date, 14 years later Sri Lanka completed their first Test win over Australia. By that time, they were already the World Champion and had new stars like Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan. This was not a great Test match for Australia as during Sri Lanka’s first innings while attempting a catch, Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie had a terrible clash and both had to be hospitalized for fractures.
Australia were already in trouble scoring only 188 runs in the first innings. More than half of these runs came from Ricky Ponting as Vaas, Zoysa and Murali shared all ten wickets among them. Sri Lankan response was 234 including Aravinda de Silva’s 78. Shane Warne took five wickets.
By Australia’s second innings, the pitch was uneven and the team was distracted by the accident. Only nine players could bat and they posted just 140. Ponting again top-scored with 51. A target of 95 was achieved losing just four wickets and Sri Lankan cricket made a joint stride towards becoming a stronger cricketing nation in Test match cricket.
