Nishan Madushka and Kusal Mendis achieved double centuries against Ireland on Thursday, and Sri Lanka’s top four batsmen all hit hundreds, which has only happened three times in Test history.
After the fourth day tea break of the second Test in Galle, the hosts ended their first innings at 704 for three, with a lead of 212 runs.
At the end of the day’s play, Ireland had scored 54 runs for the loss of two wickets and they have to score 158 more runs on the last day of the match to avoid a consecutive innings defeat.
Ireland has lost all five of their games since becoming a Test team in 2017, but they could still achieve their first draw if they manage to hold on.
Madushka achieved a double century in his first-ever Test match, making him the second-youngest Sri Lankan player to do so after Mahela Jayawardene.
He got out for 205 during the third over after lunch when Andy McBrine lbw’d him. The initial appeal was turned down, but Ireland successfully reviewed the decision.
Madushka batted for almost eight hours, facing 339 balls and hitting 22 fours and one six.
Mendis, who had been dismissed twice before scoring 200 runs in Test matches, finally achieved his first Test 200 by hitting a ball from Ben White towards the square to take a single run.
He scored 245 runs and almost broke the world record set by Wasim Akram of hitting 12 sixes in a Test innings, but he was caught at long-off while trying to achieve that feat.
Angelo Mathews got out for zero in the first Test, and was almost dismissed for one in the current match. However, he used this opportunity to score his 16th Test century.
This made the hosts the third team in history to have four players score 100 runs in a match, following India against Bangladesh in 2007 and Pakistan against Sri Lanka in 2019.
Captain Dimuth Karunaratne declared immediately after scoring 115 on Wednesday. Their huge score of 704 for three was the highest ever recorded in Galle, surpassing Bangladesh’s 638 all out in 2013.
The conditions for batting were still favorable, but Ramesh Mendis took out James McCollum, who had only scored 10 runs, and then Jayasuriya caught Peter Moor at short extra cover.
Andy Balbirnie and Harry Tector ended the day’s play for Ireland without any difficulty. Balbirnie scored 12 runs while Tector scored seven runs.