Dimuth Karunaratne hammers his ninth 50-plus score versus Bangladesh (Tests)
What's the story
Veteran Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne scored a brilliant half-century in the first innings of the second and final Test against Bangladesh in Chattogram. He paced his knock to perfection and ended up scoring 86 off 129 balls, a knock laced with eight boundaries and a six. He would be gutted about missing out on a hundred. Here are his stats.
Knock
Karunaratne was involved in two 90-plus stands
Karunaratne was brilliant in the morning session as the Tigers failed to take any wickets with the new ball. Alongside fellow opener Nishan Madushka, he added 96 runs before the latter was dismissed. Karunaratne found another potent partner in Kusal Mendis as the duo added 114 runs. The former eventually fell to young fast bowler Hasan Mahmud.
Stats
Here are his stats
With this fifty, the veteran opener has raced to 1,137 runs across 14 Tests against Bangladesh at 49.43. The tally now includes three tons and six fifties. Playing his 91st Test match, Karunaratne now owns 6,895 runs at an average of 41.53. Besides slamming 37 fifties, he has hammered 16 centuries in Test cricket.
Tally
Fifth-highest run-getter for Sri Lanka in Test cricket
Karunaratne, who stepped down as SL's Test captain earlier this year, is SL's fifth-highest run-getter in the format. He is only behind players like Kumar Sangakkara (12,400), Mahela Jayawardene (11,814), Angelo Mathews (7,500-plus), and Sanath Jayasuriya (6,973) in terms of Test runs. Among active SL players, only Mathews has scored more runs in this format.