Sri Lanka’s second innings lasted only 24.2 overs, which is their shortest in Test history. Here are more stats highlights from the match
- Four of Sri Lanka’s top five batsmen were dismissed for 0 or 1 in the second innings, which is a first for them. It’s only the eighth time this has happened in Test history.
- Sri Lanka’s second innings wound up in 24.2 overs, which is their shortest completed innings in Tests. Their second-worst effort is 24.4, in Cardiff last year, when they were bundled out for 82 in their second innings, spectacularly losing a game that seemed headed for a draw going into the final day. Thus, two of their poorest such efforts have come in the last 20 months.
- In 12 Tests in Australia, Sri Lanka have lost ten, including four by an innings and another by ten wickets. They’ve drawn the other two. In 25 Tests against Australia, Sri Lanka have won only once, and lost 16 times.
- Sri Lanka’s innings-and-201-run loss in Melbourne is their third-heaviest in Test cricket, and their worst in almost 12 years. Their two heaviest defeats have both come against South Africa, in Cape Town in 2001 (by an innings and 229 runs), and at the SSC in 1993 (by an innings and 208 runs).
- Sri Lanka’s second innings folded at 103 for 7 - it’s only the second time in Test history that a team has been bowled out after having lost seven or fewer wickets. The previous such instance was in Kingston in 1976, when five of India’s batsmen didn’t bat in the second innings.
- Over the course of the entire match, Sri Lanka lost 17 wickets for 259 runs, at an average of 15.23 runs per wicket. That average is their sixth-lowest (in Tests in which they’ve played at least 15 overs). It’s also their lowest in the last eight-and-a-half years: in Darwin in July 2004, they’d been bundled out for 97 and 162, at an average of 12.95 runs per wicket.
- The entire Test match lasted only 202.4 overs, which is the fifth-fastest MCG Test to produce a decisive result, and the fastest among matches that started on Boxing Day. The last time an MCG Test produced a result in fewer deliveries was in 1932, when Australia thrashed South Africa by an innings and 72 runs in 656 deliveries.
