Astonishing partnership: 1 run out of 102!!!!

[Rachael]

When I read the BBC report Sri Lanka gain upper hand in Test I could not believe my eyes: "Pace bowler Fernando helped add 102 for the ninth wicket, although his personal contribution was only a single". I checked.. and the report is spot on: the fall of wickets was as follows..

337 H M R K B Herath 
439 C R D Fernando

That's a 102 partnership... starting with the loss of the 8th wicket (crickinfo gives Herath, 91.6 ov),.. and with Pakistan still in with a shout.. and ending with Fernando being run out (cricinfo says at 108.6 ov)... with Sri Lanka in an astonishingly strong position.

The real shock comes from the scorecard:

Sri Lanka 2nd innings                                           R   M   B  4 6
*MS Atapattu          lbw                b Shoaib Akhtar        0       5  0 0
ST Jayasuriya         lbw                b Danish Kaneria     253     347 33 4
KC Sangakkara         c Moin Khan        b Shoaib Akhtar       59      84 10 0
DPMD Jayawardene      c Moin Khan        b Danish Kaneria      57     100  9 0
TT Samaraweera        run out (Abdul Razzaq)                   21      65  0 0
J Mubarak             c Moin Khan        b Shoaib Akhtar        0      12  0 0
+RS Kaluwitharana     c sub (Naved-ul-Hasan) b Danish Kaneria   1       9  0 0
WPUJC Vaas                               b Shoaib Malik         4      14  1 0
HMRKB Herath          lbw                b Danish Kaneria       5       8  0 0
CRD Fernando          run out (Imran Farhat)                    1      23  0 0
SL Malinga            not out                                   0       0  0 0
Extras                (b 12, lb 5, w 3, nb 12, pen 5)          37
Total                 (all out, 109.2 overs)                  438

Yes, Fernando faced 23 balls and scored one run... but in that time he supported Jayasuria through 17 overs that put the match out of sight: great rotation of the strike and batting with the tail (I reckon he added 100 runs off 79 balls).. and surely a partnership fully deserving of a mention in the record books.

[Ernest]

I am sure it will get in the record books Rachael, and on the sites like HowStats.

Ern

[Nikhil]

Rachael,

A lot of credit should go to Jayasuriya. He allowed Fernando to face only 23 balls in 17 overs, that's about a ball and a quarter per over. Fernando did well to block all of them, but the real star is Jayasuriya. Add to it the fact that he scored almost a hundred runs himself in that period. Truely amazing.

[Maranello]

Nikhil, I agree, Jayasuriya was the star... Fernando was not tested as much as he could have been, and overall runs scored (102) were much higher due to the opposition's lacklustre performance... reasons as follows:

1. There was only one decent bowler operating (Akhtar), the rest were pretty pedestrian and easy for Fernando to defend against... Sami was off injured, and Razzaq never looked likely to take a wicket
2. Akhtar bowled a lot, but he cannot be expected to bowl non-stop for a whole session, and once he finished his excellent spells, it was much easier going all around...
3. Pakistani captaincy wasn't very inspiring or imaginative.. often, Jayasuriya was given easy singles off the 4th, 5th or 6th balls of overs, instead of bowlers sending down dot balls.. even unplayable balls way down the leg side of outside off to J would have been good, if that meant Akhtar would get 6 balls at Fernando from the other end! - but none of that basic stuff was tried...
4. Jayasuriya was given too many easy runs during the partnership, routinely bowled flighted deliveries with no turn which he saw nice n early and lofted away...the field settings also played to his strenghts, which are square both sides of the wicket...he was hardly ever made to drive down the ground by any bowler..
5. Fernando was not pressured at all, either through aggressive field-placings or intimidatory bowling

So in summary, definitely a record for J and Fernando, but a lot of credit to the medoicre opposition too!!