Dhananjaya de Silva slams his 14th 50-plus score (home Tests)
What's the story
Sri Lankan captain Dhananjaya de Silva scored a fighting fifty for his team on Day 5 of the opening Test against India in Galle. The middle-order batter brilliantly tackled the Indian bowlers and brought up his 14th 50-plus score in home Tests. De Silva's knock could not have come at a better time as the hosts were once reeling at 47/4 while chasing a target of 372. Here are his stats.
Match progress
A crucial hand from the skipper
De Silva, who could only manage a 41-ball 21 in his first outing, performed much better on the final day.
Batting at five, DDS built a solid 95-run stand with Sonal Dinusha, taking the Lankans past 100 after losing four wickets inside 50 runs.
Meanwhile, de Silva's stay was cut short by left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja.
The Lankans were 142/5 at the time of his dismissal.
Stats
2,000 home Test runs loading for DDS
De Silva made 59 off 151 balls with the help of seven fours.
This was his eighth fifty across 31 home Tests, as the tally also includes six tons, as per Cricinfo.
The tally includes 1,974 runs across 56 innings at an average of 38.70.
The veteran batter now has a hundred and a fifty across 10 innings against India (262 runs at 29.11).
Overall, he has now completed 4,400 runs from 68 Tests at 39.28 (100s: 13, 50s: 20).
FC stats
10,500 runs in FC cricket
With his 20th run in the game, DDS also went past 10,500 First-Class runs.
De Silva got to the milestone in his 160th match. He has played 276 innings since making his debut in 2011.
De Silva has now raced to 10,560 runs at an average of around 41 in red-ball cricket.
He owns 30 centuries and 52 fifties.