Perera ‘a bit tired’ after epic Test win

SRI Lanka pulled off an astounding against-the-odds run chase with 153 not out by Kusal Perera and a record last-wicket partnership of 78 to beat South Africa by one wicket in the first cricket Test on Saturday.

Perera almost single-handedly won the game but No.11 batsman Vishwa Fernando played a crucial role as he hung around for 27 balls for his six not out to allow Perera, with nothing to lose, to throw caution to the wind at the other end and ultimately take Sri Lanka charging home.

Chasing an unlikely 304, Sri Lanka was 9-226 and looked out of it at Kingsmead with the 10th wicket a formality.

But Perera and Fernando had other ideas and carried the inexperienced tourists – written off at the start of the series to a thrilling victory on the fourth day as Dale Steyn and top-ranked Test bowler Kagiso Rabada could not break their last stand.

Perera scored 67 of those 78 runs for the last wicket and fittingly won it with a late cut down to the boundary for four, prompting Sri Lankan players to sprint from the dressing room out on to the field to congratulate their matchwinner.

Perera removed his helmet and thrust both arms in the air to celebrate one of the greatest innings by a Sri Lankan, and one of the team’s most remarkable victories.

Perera batted for more than five hours over two days – Sri Lanka was 52-3 when he arrived at the crease – to set up the highest successful run chase for Sri Lanka away from home. He hit 12 fours and five sixes in his second Test century and first in three years. “I’m a bit tired,” Perera said. The stand between Perera and Fernando was a record for the highest 10th-wicket partnership to win a Test. The previous best was 57 by Inzamamul-Haq and Mushtaq Ahmed for Pakistan against Australia 25 years ago.

The 304-9 was also the third-highest successful run chase in nearly 100 years of Test cricket at the Kingsmead ground in Durban.