Thilan scores landmark Test run
Sri Lankan batsman Thilan Samaraweera wrote his name into the cricket history books against England by scoring the two millionth run in Test cricket.
He brought up the milestone with a nudged four to fine leg off Steve Finn at the end of the 10th over of the day on Tuesday.
The 35-year-old went on to make 54 before falling lbw to Tim Bresnan.
The landmark comes 135 years after Charles Bannerman scored the first ever Test run for Australia against England in Melbourne in 1877.
Bannerman faced what is recognised as Test cricket’s first ball at Melbourne Cricket Ground, and scored the first run off the second ball of the day.
He went on to score the first Test hundred and become the first batsman to retire hurt in the same match.
Remarkably it took 109 years and 1,054 matches to score the first million Test runs, and it is still unclear which batsman was responsible for the historic moment.
It came in a match between Australia and India on 19 October 1986.
In the 83rd over of Australia’s second innings Allan Border hit what many believe to be the landmark run off the final ball from Raju Kulkami, although there is still some suggestion Dean Jones’s single off the ball before recorded the milestone.
That is because an innings by South Africa in a Johannesburg Test in 1906 has been changed from 34-1 to 33-1, supported by a surviving scorebook.
If that score is taken as correct then Jones and not Border scored the one millionth Test run, but no-one seems entirely sure.
What is certain is that it took 109 years to score the first million Test runs, and now just 26 years later the total has been doubled, with Samaraweera’s four during Sri Lanka’s second Test match against England in Colombo.
With an increased amount of Test cricket being played and higher than average scoring in Test matches, how long will we have to wait for the next run scoring milestone? (BBC Sport)
