Fighting Mendis pushes Sri Lanka into lead

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Lunch Sri Lanka 117 and 116 for 4 (Mendis 86*, Chandimal 7*) lead Australia 203 by 30 runsLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Sri Lanka needed someone to stand firm on the third day in Pallekele. Kusal Mendis not only stood firm, he pushed back hard against the Australians and single-handedly kept Sri Lanka alive in the Test. So solo was his performance that he even stood some chance of breaking the oldest record in cricket, the highest percentage of runs scored by a batsman in a completed innings.

Of course, plenty of action was yet to play out, but at the lunch break Mendis had 86 of Sri Lanka’s 116 for 4, or 71.4% of their total – the all-time record remains the 67.3% of Australia’s total scored by Charles Bannerman in Test match No.1, in 1877. At lunch Mendis was alongside Dinesh Chandimal, who was on 7, and Sri Lanka had moved to a lead of 30 runs.

Apart from Mendis, who scored the …

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