Australia's heroic ninth-wicket stand against Sri Lanka in numbers
Sunday 31 July 2016 11:38, UK
It's not often a team smashes two world records and end up on the losing side.
On Sunday in Pallekele, Sri Lanka were cruising on the final day in the opening Test with Australia all over the shop on 157-8. Peter Nevill and Steve O'Keefe had other ideas as rain clouds gathered.
The ninth-wicket pair got their heads down and put on four runs in 178 balls - or 29.4 overs - as they tried desperately to salvage a draw [that's almost 75 per cent of a whole T20 contest].
It was an incredible performance, especially from O'Keefe who surprised everyone by even appearing at the crease after injuring his hamstring on Thursday.
One of cricket's greatest understatements followed. Aussie skipper Steve Smith said: "Pretty proud about the way Nevill and O'Keefe fought hard in the end. We were trying to stick around as much as possible and force a draw but that wasn't to be."
It was Smith's first defeat as Test captain since taking over in 2015. At least he can reflect on his team setting world records for the slowest-scoring Test partnership and the most consecutive maidens faced.
Here are the stats on the famous partnership:
22 - the number of consecutive maidens Nevill and O'Keefe played out, from the 64th over until the 85th
16 - this was the previous record of consecutive maidens
1 - scoring shots in the partnership, O'Keefe sweeping Lakshan Sandokan to the boundary
0.13 - the pair's run rate per over. The previous record - for a partnership lasting 100 balls or more - was 0.64 by South Africa's Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers against India last December (27 from 253 balls)
115 - balls faced by Nevill for his score of nine
98 - balls faced by O'Keefe, scoring four runs
0 - extras in the 88.3 overs of Australia's second innings
2 - it was only Sri Lanka's second win in 27 Tests against Australia
176 - Kusal Mendis' second-innings score for the hosts was more than triple the second-highest contribution in the match, Steve Smith's 55 in Australia's second innings
