• It was the 1559th Test match in cricket history.

• It was India's 344th and Sri Lanka's 114th match- 23rd between these two sides. The record now reads : Sri Lanka 3,India 8,drawn 12.

• It was the 54th Test match on Sri Lankan soil and 18th on this ground.

• Umpires Dave Orchard and Asoka de Silva were officiating in their 24th and fifth match respectively.

• Thilan Samaraweera was making his Test debut for Sri Lanka. He became the 86th player to represent Sri Lanka in a Test match.

• Dulip Liyanage was making a comeback into Sri Lankan side after seven years and seven months. He last appeared in a Test against India at Lucknow in January 1994,missing 62 Tests in between. He now holds the Sri Lankan record of missing most matches in between two consecutive appearances beating left-arm spinner Don Anurasiri's record of 27 Tests (between 1993-94 to 1997-98) quite comfortably. Liyanage now is jointly placed at 13th position in Test annals. The record remains with Pakistan's Younis Ahmed who missed 104 matches in between 1969 and 1986-87. The details:

Tests	Player	For	From	Vs	To	Vs
104	Younis Ahmed	Pak	1969-70	NZ	1986-87	Ind
103	D Shackleton	Eng	1951-52	Ind	1963	WI
96	HL Jackson	Eng	1949	NZ	1961	Aus
86	PI Pocock	Eng	1976	WI	1984	WI
85	W Larkins	Eng	1981	Aus	1989-90	WI
79	KV Andrew	Eng	1954-55	Aus	1963	WI
75	DB Close	Eng	1967	Pak	1976	WI
71	RB Simpson	Aus	1967-68	Ind	1977-78	Ind
71	GE Bradburn	NZ	1992-93	SL	2000-01	Pak
69	WGA Parkhouse	Eng	1950-51	NZ	1959	Ind
68	DR Martyn	Aus	1993-94	SA	1999-00	NZ
66	SJ Rixon	Aus	1977-78	WI	1984-85	WI
65	RW Taylor	Eng	1970-71	NZ	1977-78	Pak
62	FJ Titmus	Eng	1967-68	WI	1974-75	Aus
62	DK Liyanage	SL	1993-94	Ind	2001-02	Ind
60	G Gunn	Eng	1911-12	Aus	1929-30	WI
60	D Wilson	Eng	1963-64	Ind	1970-71	NZ
60	N Gifford	Eng	1964	Aus	1971	Pak

• Chaminda Vaas became the second Sri Lankan bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan (340 wickets in 65 matches) and 67th bowler in Test history to take 150 wickets when he had Mohammed Kaif caught behind by Kumara Sangakkara in first innings. He was playing his 51st Test match.

• Muttiah Muralitharan (8-87) became the first Sri Lankan and seventh bowler to take eight or more wickets in an innings against India. The previous best for Sri Lanka against India was 6 for 85 by Rumesh Ratnayake on this ground in 1985-86.

• Muralitharan's figures were also the best by any bowler on Sri Lankan soil. Interestingly the previous best was 7 for 84 also by Muralitharan against South Africa at Galle in 2000-01.

• Muralitharan claimed 50 wickets in his 12th match against India when he dismissed Sadagopan Ramesh in second innings. He became the first Sri Lankan and 16th bowler to do so. Incidentally Pakistan's Imran Khan with 94 wickets from 23 matches holds the record of capturing most wickets in a career against India.

• Marvan Atapattu (108),Mahela Jayawerdene (139),Hashan Tillakaratne (136*) and Thilan Samaraweera (103*) provided the eighth instance in Test cricket history where four or more batsmen made hundreds in the same innings. This was however the first such instance for Sri Lanka. Only twice before have Sri Lankan batsmen scored three hundreds in the same innings - against Australia at this same venue in August 1992 and against India at the Premadasa in August 1997. Only a day earlier five Pakistani batsmen had scored hundreds against Bangladesh at Multan which equalled the record held by Australia against the West Indies at Kingston in June 1955. India has now conceded four hundreds in same innings on four occasions. No other team has conceded so many more hundreds than once!

• The unbeaten partnership of 194 runs between Hashan Tillekeratne and debutant Thilan Samaraweera was Sri Lanka's best for the seventh wicket in Tests. This oblitareted the previous best of 144 between Aravinda de Silva and Ravi Ratnayeke against Australia at Brisbane in 1989-90. The partnership was also the highest ever by any team against India for this wicket bettering the previous best of 163 between New Zealand's Bert Sutcliffe and Bruce Taylor at Calcutta in 1964-65. Incidentally the previous highest seventh wicket partnership for Sri Lanka against India was a paltry 77 between Ranjan Madugalle and Somachandra de Silva at Madras in 1982-83. This was also the highest unbeaten partnership for the seventh wicket in Test history.The previous highest such partnership was the 160 between India's Sachin Tendulkar and Manoj Prabhakar against England at Manchester in 1990. Thilan Samaraweera (103*) became only the third Sri Lankan batsman to score a hundred on Test debut. The two others are Brendon Kuruppu (201*) against New Zealand at the Colombo Cricket Club ground in 1986-87 and Romesh Kaluwitharana (132*) against Australia at the same ground in 1992-93. Samaraweera became the 71st batsman to score a hundred in his debut Test. Samaraweera became the first Sri Lankan to score a Test hundred at number eight.The previous highest was the 62 by Ruwan Kalpage against Pakistan at Kandy in 1994-95. Sri Lanka's total of 610-6 dec was its second highest in Tests after the world record 952-6 also against India at the Premadasa in August 1997.

• Rahul Dravid became the eighth Indian batsman and 70th batsman in all to aggregate 4000 runs in a Test career his 36-run knock. It was 84th innings of his 48th Test match. The other Indian batsman to achieve this distinction are Sunil Gavaskar (10122 runs in 125 Tests), Sachin Tendulkar (6919 runs in 84 Tests), Dilip Vengsarkar (6868 runs in 116 Tests), Mohammed Azharuddin (6215 runs in 99 Tests), Gundappa Viswanath (6080 runs in 91 Tests), Kapil Dev (5248 runs in 131 Tests) and Mohinder Amarnath (4378 runs in 69 Tests). Among the Indians only Sunil Gavaskar has reached this target in lesser matches and innings (43 and 81 respectively).

• Muralitharan's match figures of 11 for 196 were the best by a Sri Lankan against India. The previous record was in the name of Rumesh Ratnayake who took nine wickets for 125 runs at the same ground in 1985-86.

• It was the sixth occasion when Muralithran took ten or more wickets in a match. Among the spinners only Australia's Clarrie Grimmett has more ten wicket hauls - seven to his name. The Test record of most ten-wicket hauls (irrespective of type of bowler) is held by New Zealander Richard Hadlee with nine such instances.

• Muralitharan's 11-196 was the third best match performance by a spinner against India after the 11-105 by Australian right-arm leg spinner Richie Benaud at Kolkata in 1956-57 and the 11-153 by the English left-arm spinner Hedley Verity at Chennai in 1933-34. However Murali's performance was the best by a spinner in a Test match against India on foreign soil bettering the 9-63 by West Indian off-spinner Lance Gibbs at Bridgetown in 1961-62. Muralitharan's 23 wickets in the series is the best performance by a Sri Lankan bowler against India. The previous highest was the 20 wickets by Rumesh Ratnayake during the three match series in 1985-86 in Sri Lanka.

• The last wicket partnership of 30 runs between Zaheer Khan and Venkatesh Prasad was India's best against Sri Lanka obliterating the previous best of 29 between Kapil Dev and Chetan Sharma at the Colombo Saravanamuttu Stadium in 1985-86. Shiv Sundar Das (59 & 68) became 19th Indian to top score in each innings of a Test. He also provided the 28th such instance for India. The victory by an innings and 77 runs equalled Sri Lanka's best in Tests. The team had beaten Zimbabwe by an identical margin at the Premadasa Stadium, Colombo in September 1996. Sri Lanka now has innings victories on five occasions - against Zimbabwe, New Zealand, South Africa, England and India. The following table lists the best wins for each Test playing nation by innings margin :

Country	Margin of Victory	Opponents	Venue	Season
England	Inns & 579 runs	Aus	The Oval	1938
Australia	Inns & 332 runs	Eng	Brisbane	1946-47
South Africa	Inns & 229 runs	SL	Cape Town	2000-01
West Indies	Inns & 336 runs	Ind	Calcutta	1958-59
New Zealand	Inns & 185 runs	Pak	Hamilton	2000-01
India	Inns & 219 runs	Aus	Calcutta	1997-98
Pakistan	Inns & 264 runs	BD	Multan	2001-02
Sri Lanka	Inns & 77 runs	Zim	Colombo RPS	1996-97
	Inns & 77 runs	Ind	Colombo SSC	2001-02
Zimbabwe	Inns & 64 runs	Pak	Harare	1994-95
Bangladesh	No instance

• The defeat was India's 33rd by an innings margin in Tests and its first against Sri Lanka. It was India's 73rd defeat on foreign soil in 162 matches and its third on Sri Lankan soil. Muralitharan was nominated the Man-of-the-Match award for the seventh time in his career. Among the Sri Lankans only Aravinda de Silva has won more awards (11) than him. It was Sri Lanka's second series win against India after its first in 1985-86 at home. It was Ganguly first Test series loss as captain.

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