Sri Lanka’s Kusal Perera, a swashbuckling middle-order batsman, and No 11 Vishwa Fernando, who batted for 73 minutes without hitting a shot in anger, added a record 78 for the last wicket to steer their team to an unlikely one-wicket win against South Africa in the first Test at Kingsmead in Durban. Perera scored a career-best 153 not out including five sixes while keeping his partner away from the strike. Fernando faced only 27 of the 95 balls as the visitors took their total from 226-9 to the victory target of 304.
It was the highest last-wicket stand in a successful fourth-innings chase in first-class cricket, beating Thomas Leather and Ron Oxenham’s 77-run stand for Australians against Madras in 1936.
Perera was in his second