49 West Indies' lead at the end of their first innings. Only three times did they lose a Test match after taking a higher first-innings lead when batting second. This defeat extended West Indies' wait for their maiden Test win on Sri Lankan soil to 13 matches, played across six tours in 28 years.
1 Wicket for pace bowlers in this match, the joint-second fewest in a completed Test match. The only men's Test where no pacer got a wicket was the Kanpur Test in 1952 between India and England. Jason Holder, on the final morning, was the only pacer to take a wicket.
21 Number of wickets for the left-arm spin bowlers in this match, the joint-third most in a men's Test. Left-arm spinners claimed 24 wickets during the India-Pakistan Test in Bangalore in 1987, while 22 wickets fell for them during the Test match between Bangladesh and New Zealand in Chattogram in 2008.
11 for 136 The match figures of Ramesh Mendis during the second Test. Only one bowler has had better match returns for Sri Lanka than Mendis in a Test match against West Indies. Chaminda Vaas ended with 14 for 191 in 2001 at the Sinhalese Sports Club to be instrumental in a 10-wicket win of Sri Lanka.
2 Instances of spinners bagging five-wicket hauls for Sri Lanka in the same Test innings, including Mendis and Lasith Embuldeniya against West Indies. The other such pair was Muthiah Muralidaran and Sanath Jayasuriya against Zimbabwe in 2001 in Galle.
9 Instances of spinners picking up all 20 wickets for a team in a Test match since 1911, including Sri Lanka in Galle. It is also only the third occasion of Sri Lankan spinners taking all 20 wickets in a Test match - the other instances were against South Africa and England in 2018.
36 Wickets for spinners across the four innings in Galle are the fourth-most in a Test match. The Pallekele Test between Sri Lanka and England in 2018 saw 38 wickets falling for the spinners, the same during the Chattogram Test between Bangladesh and Afghanistan in 2019.
4 Five-wicket hauls for the spin bowlers in this game - two for Mendis, one for Embuldeniya and one for Veeraswamy Permaul. There has been only one other instance of spinners with four five-fors in a Test match since 1911 - when Sri Lanka hosted Australia in 2004 in Galle. Muralidaran and Shane Warne took five-fors in both innings of that Test match.
124 Partnership runs between Dhananjaya de Silva and Embuldeniya in the second innings, the highest ninth-wicket stand for Sri Lanka in Test cricket. The previous highest was 118 runs between Thilan Samaraweera and Ajantha Mendis against India in 2010.