A glorious chapter was written in Sri Lankan cricket history on the final day of the second Test against India in Colombo. Left-handed batsman Sonal Dinusha demonstrated extraordinary patience, flawless technique, and supreme composure against the Indian bowling attack to reach an unbeaten century. Walking back at the Tea break stranded on 98 runs, Dinusha needed just two more runs in the final session to complete his hundred. Upon resumption of play, he quickly added those two runs, reaching a monumental milestone that no batsman in the 149-year history of Test cricket had ever accomplished before.
Twin Hundreds in the Colombo Test Match
The Colombo Test will go down as a career-defining match for Sonal Dinusha. Demonstrating immense discipline in the first innings, he anchored Sri Lanka's effort by facing 223 deliveries to score a resilient 103 runs. Returning to the crease in the second innings, he blunted the Indian attack once again, consuming 196 balls to remain unbeaten on 100. Right before the Tea break on the fifth afternoon, Dinusha was agonisingly close to his century on 98. Without displaying any sign of nerve, he calmly tucked away the required two runs early in the final session to register centuries in both innings of the same Test match against India.
World Record: Three Centuries in First Two Tests vs India
Dinusha's performance across the two-match Test series against Team India broke new ground in international cricket. He became the first player in world cricket history to register three centuries in his opening two Test matches against India. His prolific run began in the series opener at Galle, where he scored 100 runs in the first innings followed by a combative 84 in the second innings. He followed that up in Colombo with scores of 103 and 100 not out. Over the course of the two-match series, Dinusha amassed an astounding total of 387 runs across 4 innings, finishing as the highest run-scorer of the series by a wide margin.
Equalling a Historic 67-Year-Old Streak
By registering scores of fifty or more in each of his first four Test innings against India, Dinusha matched a legendary milestone that had stood untouched for 67 years. The last batsman to score 50-plus runs in his first four Test innings against India was England's Ken Barrington back in 1959. Dinusha has now joined an elite group of just five players in Test history who have managed this exceptional feat against Indian bowling attack.
- Douglas Jardine (England): Accomplished the feat between 1932 and 1934.
- Everton Weekes (West Indies): Scored consecutive fifties in his first four innings vs India in 1948.
- Clyde Walcott (West Indies): Achieved the milestone during the 1948 series against India.
- Ken Barrington (England): Maintained the streak of four consecutive 50-plus scores in 1959.
- Sonal Dinusha (Sri Lanka): Joined the record books in 2026 with scores of 100, 84, 103, and 100* against India.
Joining an Exclusive Sri Lankan Club After 29 Years
By scoring centuries in both innings of a single Test match against India, Sonal Dinusha became only the third Sri Lankan batsman in history to join this prestigious list. It took 29 long years for a Sri Lankan cricketer to replicate this monumental effort against India. Legendary batsman Duleep Mendis was the first to achieve this when he scored twin hundreds (105 and 105) at Chennai in 1982. Later in 1997, Aravinda de Silva etched his name into history by scoring 146 and 120 at Colombo SSC. Now in 2026, Dinusha has joined Mendis and De Silva by scoring 103 and 100* at the exact same Colombo SSC venue.
