Player of the Match
Player of the Match

And that concludes our coverage for this first Test. Thanks for keeping us company, and join us again on Monday for the start of the second Test. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for Fidel's report which should be up shortly. On behalf of Shashwat, this is Madushka signing off!

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne: "First of all I just wanted to make sure that I got a big one. In the Australia series I got starts, but I wanted three figures. The key was patience. As for Ireland they're new to this format, they're still learning, but I thought they were very good and will improve in the future. They bowled well, we just wanted to apply ourselves for the first hour, and after that we knew how to play spin and bat in these conditions. Sadeera was very key, I knew from the A Team as well, he's a hard worker. He's done well for the A Team and the NSL, so I knew he would do well when given a chance. Even the fielding was really good, need to mention Nishan Madushka, those catches were brilliant. That's the kind of attitude I want from our fielders, even though I know the conditions are difficult. [Prabath Jayasuriya] knew what he had to do, I don't need to do anything at all, he knows exactly what's needed."

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie: "It's another Test match under the belt for a lot of our cricketers. A lot of us want to play Test cricket but we got a real taste of that over the last three days. We knew coming into it that it would be very testing, Sri Lanka at home are a daunting prospect for any team, never mind a team that hasn't played a lot of Test cricket. Certainly there's learnings but we've got to find a way compete better. We had one Test [in Bangladesh] which prepared us for this one, but it's still probably not enough preparation. A lot of our focus in the last few years has been white-ball so we need to play more and more red-ball to gain that experience. Sometime [the transition from white-ball to red-ball cricket] can be quite big, but we've got to find ways to make it smaller, and find a way to transition those skills."

Prabath Jayasuriya is unsurprisingly the Player of the Match: "I'm always trying to do the basics, don't experiment too much. This was a similar wicket to the matches we played against Pakistan and Australia. There was some drift because of the wind, so enjoyed using that as well."

Stay tuned for the presentation ceremony.

David: "This is tough love for Ireland- it's a long way to Tipperary.. "

Stephen: "Ben White seems to do better when he plays for Arsenal." Took three days, but I'm glad someone finally made this reference.

3.33pm So that's a record innings victory for Sri Lanka, as they take a 1-0 lead in this series, inside of three days. Prabath Jayasuriya takes the match ball with 10 wickets for the innings, adding three in the second to go with his seven in the first. Ramesh Mendis had the best innings figures second time around taking 4 for 76, and in the process equalled the record for the fastest Sri Lankan to 50 Test wickets, reaching it in 11 Tests but less innings than Dilruwan Perera. Ireland fought in spells today, but the record will nevertheless show they lost 13 wickets in the day. Galle is a tough challenge for most sides, let alone one playing just their fifth Test, but the experience they take away from it will be invaluable. And they'll need it too, because they'll have to do it all again next week.

54.1
W
Jayasuriya to White, OUT, And that should be that! Ireland have reviewed this LBW, but it looked plumb. This pitched on middle and off on a good length, straightened and went past the outside edge on the forward defence, and struck the back pad right in front of off stump. And yup, the three reds confirms that Sri Lanka have won by an innings at 280 runs!

B White lbw b Jayasuriya 1 (4m 2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 50.00

END OF OVER:
54 | 4 Runs 1 Wkt | IRE: 168/9

  • Ben White1 (1b)
  • Mark Adair23 (29b)
  • Ramesh Mendis20-1-76-4
  • Prabath Jayasuriya24-6-56-2
53.6
1
RTM Mendis to White, 1 run, Good length outside off, straightens at takes the inside edge well to the left of short leg

Galen: "SL need to wrap this up for less than 194 to get a record winning margin for them."

MW: "9th wicket partnership of 35 a new record for Ireland!" Make that 36. Though considering this is just their 5th Test, feel like we'll be getting a whole host of such "new records".

Sri Lanka now one away.

Ireland in Sri Lanka 2023 News

Ireland 3rd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st0JA McCollumM Commins
2nd8A BalbirnieJA McCollum
3rd16JA McCollumHT Tector
4th8LJ TuckerHT Tector
5th8PJ MoorHT Tector
6th60C CampherHT Tector
7th8GH DockrellHT Tector
8th23GH DockrellAR McBrine
9th36GH DockrellMR Adair
10th1MR AdairB White