Kamindu Mendis goes past Sunil Gavaskar with record half-century

Sri Lanka batter Kamindu Mendis etched his name in the record books with yet another fifty. He brought up his eighth 50-plus score in Tests and is the only batter other than Saud Shakeel to score a fifty in each of his first seven Tests. As a result, he goes past Sunil Gavaskar, who scored a fifty in each of his first six Tests.

Kamindu achieved this feat during the first day of the first Test against New Zealand in Galle. He is coming off an impressive series in England, where he registered scores of 2, 113, 74, 4, and 64. He made his debut in Galle against Australia in 2022, where he slammed 61 in Sri Lanka's innings victory.

He did not feature in the Test side for almost two years after that, and when he returned against Bangladesh earlier this year, he slammed 102 and 164 in the Sylhet Test. He then followed that up with an unbeaten 92 in the next Test in Chattogram.

Kamindu got to his fifty off 73 deliveries in the ongoing Test in Galle. He put on 72 or the fifth wicket with Angelo Mathews, who had returned after retiring hurt following a blow to his hand. 

William O'Rourke has breathed fire throughout the day for New Zealand and has been rewarded with three wickets so far. Many Sri Lankan batters, Pathum Nissanka (27), Dinesh Chandimal (30), and Mathews (36), have got off to starts, but nobody has turned that into anything substantial.

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