Match Details

IRE vs SL 1st TEST, SL vs IRE 2023

team important image
IRE 143(52.3)
168-1054.1
Sri Lanka won by an innings and 280 runs 🏆
591-6(131.0)
SL
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52nd Over:
0
0
0
0
4
1
 
= 5
53rd Over:
0
0
0
0
4
0
 
= 4
Last Over:
1
1
0
1
W
1
 
= 4
This Over:
W
 
= 0

Commentary

All
Highlights
Overs
W
6s
4s
Inn 1
Inn 2
Inn 3
Inn 4
Milestone
That wraps up our coverage of the 1st Test match between Sri Lanka & Ireland. The hosts have defeated the Irish side convincingly in three days to take a lead of 1-0 in the series. Both these sides will clash again on Monday, April 24th for the second and the final Test match of the tour. Do join us there. For now, this is Megh Mandaliya, signing off on behalf of my co-commentators Deepak Prakash and Saipavan Janaki, and our scorer/analyst Yogesh Kumar. Cheers!
Dimuth Karunaratne (Srilanka Captain): "I think first of all make sure that we use the wicket very well start, I reached the 3 figure. They are a really good team how they played in Bangladesh and they are new in this formal but still learning and a very good team. I wicket was well they bowled well, we applied the well in the first hour, and tough to play in spin bowling and rotate the strike at starting. (Samarawickrama) He's very hunger and unfortunately, he couldn't do well in past but this time he is very well and when he gets chance gives his best. We did great fielding in the middle and mainly Madushka was done brilliant field.  (On Jayasuriya) He knew what he had to do. He has patience and he knows where to hit the areas.Thanks"
Andrew Balbirnie (Ireland Captain): "It's another Test match under our belt. I always wanted to play Test cricket but we got a real taste of it in this contest. Yeah, I think we had one Test in Bangladesh which prepared us for this tour. But still was not enough to tackle these conditions. We have to play more and more Test cricket to gain those experience. Sri Lanka has got some really experienced cricketers. We have to find a way to adapt to Test cricket with white ball skills. The more we play in this format, the more we will be better at it."
Prabath Jayasuriya (Player of the Match): "Yeah, I always try to give my hundred percent and try to bowl wicket to wicket. This was a similar wicket to the matches we played against Pakistan and Australia. Yeah, there was some drift due to the wind so I used it."
Prabath Jayasuriya is the Player of the Match.
3:45 PM IST | Time for the post-match presentation...
3:33 PM IST | That will do it for Sri Lanka! They have thwarted Ireland by an innings and 280 runs in the first Test to go 1-0 up in the two-match Test series. The Dimuth Karunaratne-led side has exploited the home conditions and dominated the Test match entirely. Ireland never looked in a commanding position as they were bundled out twice today by losing 13 wickets. This is also Ireland’s biggest defeat in the whites.

Tottering at 117/7, Lorcan Tucker and Andy McBrine continued the play for Ireland on the moving day of the Test match. With Ireland being 474 runs behind and with only 3 wickets in hand, one may have anticipated Sri Lanka to wag the tail, but the left-right duo of Tucker and McBrine had other arrangements. The gloveman Tucker was excellent with his front foot defense and took some calculative risks. However, his progress was halted by Prabath Jayasuriya as the left-arm spinner trapped in front on 45(73) with the help of 7 fours. 

Following Tucker’s departure, the Sri Lankan bowlers were quick to turn the boat around and bagged the remaining two wickets in a trice. McBrine 7(35) displayed some resistance but he too was outdone by a skiddy delivery of Ramesh Mendis. Prabath Jayasuriya claimed his career-best figures of 7/52 to bundle out Ireland for 143 in their first innings. The Dimuth Karunaratne-led side enforced a follow-on as Ireland was asked to survive a tricky period before Lunch.

James McCollum and Murray Commins spearheaded the innings again for Ireland in a quest to reduce the deficit but the Sri Lankan bowlers were once again impeccable with the fresh red cherry. Vishwa Fernando drew first blood in Ireland’s second innings by dismissing the southpaw Commins for a duck for the second time in this Test match. Andrew Balbirnie looked to redress the failure of the first innings but the Irish skipper was outwitted by a brilliant away swinger from Fernando and had to walk back for 6(16). 

Harry Tector, the next batter in, joined forces with McCollum to supply a little period of respite. However, Prabath Jayasuriya once again lures McCollum into a trap and dismisses the right-hander for 8(28). Lorcan Tucker 6(10) was unable to carry on with his first innings performance as Jayasuriya spins his web again. To fan the flames, Ireland lost another wicket at the stroke of Lunch as Peter Moor 0(5) spooned a simple catch to Nishan Madushka at short leg. 

Ireland resumed the post-lunch session on 41/5 and they were quite evidently in huge trouble. Harry Tector and Curtis Campher resumed the play for Ireland and the duo took the aggressive route early on. A cluster of sweeps and reverse sweeps were tested out by both batters to break the rhythm of the bowlers. Curtis and Tector dictated the play well for Ireland for the first half of the session. The duo glued up a 60-run partnership for the 6th wicket Mendis dismissed Campher for 30(73).  

That was soon followed by an unfortunate run-out of Tector on 42(95) in the 40th over. George Dockrell counterattacked and collected some boundaries but the wickets kept tumbling at the other end as Ireland was positioned at 135/8 at the Tea break. Dockrell and Adair batted with persistence in the final session of the day and vexed the hosts. The 36-run partnership between the duo was ceased by Mendis and following that, it didn’t take Sri Lanka long enough to skittle out Ireland for 168. Jayasuriya bagged three wickets in Ireland's second innings to complete his 10-wicket haul in the Test match. Mendis also clinched 4 wickets on a surface that was mainly dominated by the bowlers. 

Earlier in the Test match, after being elected to bat first, Sri Lanka posted a mammoth total of 591/6 before declaring the innings. After losing Nishan Madushka for 29(48), Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis stitched a whopping 281-run partnership. George Dockrell provided the desperate breakthrough to Ireland by dismissing Mendis for 140(193). 

The southpaw Karunaratne also accumulated 179(235) before Mark Adair got the better of him. Sri Lanka kept on piling runs despite a couple of breakthroughs. Dinesh Chandimal brought up his 14th Test century and remained unbeaten at 102* (155). The keeper Sadeera Samarawickrama also registered his maiden Test century 104* (114) before Sri Lanka decided to declare the innings on Day 2. Stick around for the post-match presentation!

Ben White goes upstairs.

Reviews Left: SL: 2, IRE: 2
54.1 P Jayasuriya to B White
W WICKET!!!! ALL OUT!!! Tossed up delivery on the off stump line, White strides forward and looks to defend but gets beaten and the ball goes through. The ball gets it on his back pad, huge appeal and the umpire raises his finger without any hesitation. Whites goes upstairs, no bat is involved in the ultra-edge and three reds in the ball tracking and that's the end of the White's innings. Ireland bundled out again at 168. 
OVER 54
Ireland
168/9
Mark Adair
23(29)
Ben White
1(1)
Ramesh Mendis
4-76(20.0)
53.6 R Mendis to B White
1 Single to end the over. Fuller delivery outside the off. Ben White gets the thick inside edge of the bat that rolls down to short square leg for a single. 
53.5 R Mendis to G Dockrell
W APPEAL AND UP GOES THE FINGER!! Tossed up delivery around the off-stump and turns into the middle stump line. Dockrell strides forward to defend but misses it as the ball thuds him on the front pad. Appeal and the umpire raises his finger. Dockrell goes upstairs but the ball tracking indicates three reds. So, Sri Lanka needed just one wicket to lead the series 1-0.
53.4 R Mendis to M Adair
1 Fuller delivery on the off. Adair drills it to mid-off for a single.
Commentary