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| Kumar Sangakkara has the same number of double-centuries as Brian Lara, but does not consider himself in the same league © AFP |
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Kumar Sangakkara approached his maiden triple-hundred at a sprint. When the eighth wicket fell, he had been on 253 – in danger of being stranded short of a milestone he later admitted he desired, if only to “be part of the club”. The team’s goals happily aligned with his own in the late afternoon, lighting a fire underneath his feet. He sped forward from the crease often, with brutal intent.
His final 52-runs as a non-member of the 300-club were walloped in 30 balls, but although Sangakkara was still mid-frenzy when he passed the milestone, his celebrations were remarkably collected. A hand-grasp with his partner followed the raising of both arms, before the helmet came off, briefly. Within 90 seconds, he was taking guard again.
Perhaps he knew that he had not unlocked anything new in himself in the course of his epic. There were few thorny periods to overcome, and an already-battered opposition had been further hamstrung by an injury to a frontline bowler, as well as their captain and wicketkeeper. His team could not have claimed their commanding position without him, but at a personal level, perhaps his greatest achievements on Wednesday were his statistical harvests.
Sangakkara became the quickest man to 11,000 runs on Wednesday. Though outside Sri Lanka he is rarely spoken of in the same breath as the modern batting greats, that discussion is now long overdue.
The first port of call for any such exercise is his average. At a career-high 57.83, he comfortably outstrips Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting, and is better than Jacques Kallis by more than two runs. Of the seven batsmen that boast better averages (qualification: 2000 career runs), Ken Barrington had the most recent career, from 1955 to 1968. None of the men above him have scored 8000 runs, nor played more than 90 Tests. The debate then moves to how many of Sangakkara’s runs mean little? He is by far Bangladesh’s lead tormentor with the bat, having struck 1711 runs against them – over 15% of his career total. He has not gone easy on Zimbabwe in six innings either, averaging 89.88. Continue reading →
You don’t often see Kumar Sangakkara remaining quiet for an extended period of time. Sri Lanka’s number three batsman had an average series against Pakistan where he had a top score of 55 in six innings. Sanga arrived for the series against Bangladesh firmly focused and it was Bangladesh’s bowlers who were at the receiving end in the second Test between the countries in Chittagong as the former Sri Lanka captain became only the second man after Graham Gooch to score a triple hundred and a hundred in the same Test. Continue reading 
