The rising star of Sri Lanka cricket, Kamindu Mendis is having a blast beginning to his international career. In his brief career, Mendis has shattered several records, and he now has even more to his credit after lighting up the opening innings of the second Test match against New Zealand at Galle with an incredible 182. Mendis surpassed Joe Root, who scored four centuries, by scoring his fifth century of the year and becoming the first player to reach five international hundreds in 2024. With 1210 runs to his credit, he is ranked second on the list of players with the most this year.
In addition, Mendis made history by becoming the first batter in history to score eight fifty-plus scores in a row after making his debut. Saud Shakeel's record of seven Tests in a row with fifty or more scores came from his debut. He accomplished another amazing milestone when he joined Don Bradman, becoming the second fastest person to perform 1000 Tests. It took 13 innings for Mendis and Bradman to reach the milestone. In Test cricket, Everton Weekes and Herbert Sutcliffe hold the top two positions for fastest to 1000 runs, having completed the feat in 12 innings.
NZ collapse on just 88 runs
Together with 116 from Dinesh Chandimal and 106 from Kusal Mendis, Kamindu Mendis' unbeaten century enabled Sri Lanka to amass an intimidating 602-5 in their opening innings. With Prabath Jayasuriya getting six wickets in the first innings, New Zealand was bowled out for a meagre 88 runs after a poor batting performance. With a strong probability to win the Test, Sri Lanka will increase their chances of making it to the WTC final. Sri Lanka will play a series against Australia and South Africa after this, and if they do well in those matches, they stand a good chance of making it to the WTC final.
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