In a cricket match between Sri Lanka and Ireland, Ramesh Mendis celebrated with his teammates after successfully taking the wicket of Andrew Balbirnie on the fifth day. The match was the second and final Test match held at the Galle International Cricket Stadium in Galle on April 28, 2023.
Sri Lanka won the second Test against Ireland by an innings and 10 runs, with Ramesh Mendis taking five wickets and Prabath Jayasuriya becoming the fastest spinner to reach 50 Test wickets.
The hosts won both matches in Galle and achieved their 100th Test win, while the tourists continued to have a 100 percent losing record in Test cricket.
Harry Tector was the only player who tried to prevent a loss on the final day of the match by scoring 85 runs and partnering with the ninth wicket to add 41 runs. However, Mendis took 5 wickets for 64 runs as Ireland could only manage to score 202 runs in their second innings before being all out.
Asitha Fernando ended the resistance by bowling Tector with a yorker and then got rid of the last man, Ben White, with the very next ball to secure another strong victory.
Sri Lanka triumphed in the initial Test match with a massive lead of 280 runs. In 2017, Ireland became a Test cricket team, but they have since lost all six of their matches in this format.
Andy Balbirnie, the captain, expressed his delight to the media in Galle that the game had reached its fifth day. I believe we have made progress and we should continue to do so.
The visitors scored 492 runs in their first innings, which is one of the highest scores ever to result in a defeat by an innings.
Sri Lanka announced their score of 704-3 and then Ireland started their second innings at 54-2, trying to survive and not lose on a pitch that was still favorable for batting.
Jayasuriya took his 50th wicket in just seven Tests, making him the fastest spinner to achieve this, after dismissing Paul Stirling in the fourth over of the morning.
Over 70 years ago, West Indies player Alf Valentine, who was also a left-arm bowler, took eight games to achieve the same milestone.
Mendis got rid of Curtis Campher, who had scored a century in the first innings, by catching his sweep shot at leg-slip. He also took his third wicket of the innings when Balbirnie hit a shot straight to Angelo Mathews at mid-off while on 46.
Mendis took four wickets in a row, including Andy McBrine and Graham Hume, to achieve his fourth five-wicket haul.
According to the winning captain Dimuth Karunaratne, the pitch was favorable for batting, but he was impressed with how well the bowlers performed. Ireland’s upcoming Test match against England in June will be a challenging one.
Balbirnie mentioned that their upcoming Test match at Lord’s will benefit from their experience of playing three Tests within a month. However, his team was defeated by Bangladesh as well.