Kamindu Mendis ethched his name in history books and equalled a world record which was previously solely owned Pakistan's Saud Shakeel. Mendis has been enjoying a dream run in Test cricket since his debut and he continued his form. The left-handed batsman smashed a century on day 1 of the first Test match against New Zealand.
The moment he breached the 50-run mark, Mendis equalled a world record. He has become the second batsman after Saud Shakeel to score more than 50 runs in an innings in seven back-to-back Test matches. Mendis previously shared the second spot with Sunil Gavaskar, Bert Sutcliffe, Saeed Ahmed and Basil Butcher.
Mendis will overtake Saud and become the sole owner of the record if he breaches the 50-run mark in any of the innings of the second Test match.
Kamindu Mendis made his Test debut against Australia in Galle in 2022. He scored 61 in the only innings he played. Mendis scored twin centuries against Bangladesh in his second Test match in March 2024. He scored an unbeaten 92 and 9 in the next game of the series.
Mendis played his fourth Test match against England in Manchester. He scored a century in the second innings of the game. The 25-year-old hit 74 and 4 in the Lord's Test match.
Mendis scored a brilliant 64 in Sri Lanka's first innings in the third Test match at the Oval to play his part in his team's win. He has now scored a century against New Zealand to equal the world record. Another fifty-plus score in the next Test match will see Mendis become the only batsman in world cricket to own this record.
Courtesy of Mendis' century, Sri Lanka breached the 300-run mark on day 1. He departed for 114 off 173 balls on the third delivery of the 87th over. Ajaz Patel dismissed the in-form batsman in the final few minutes of the day's play.