There have been many memorable moments in the history of Sri Lankan cricket which all cricket fans have not been able to forget till date. One of these is the victory of the Sri Lankan team against England at The Oval in 1998. In this match, the explosive opening batsman of the Sri Lankan team at that time, Sanath Jayasuriya, played an important innings of 213 runs in 278 balls in the first innings by batting explosively.

Recently, the Sri Lankan team won by 8 wickets against England in the third and final match of the three-match Test series. Sri Lankan team’s interim coach Sanath Jayasuriya, after winning this match, compared the victory of The Oval Test of 1998 and 2024.

Let us tell you that the conditions of the match that Sri Lanka won against England at this venue were quite different at that time. However, Sri Lanka won on a green track in cold and cloudy weather.

After winning the third and final Test against England in 2024, Sanath Jayasuriya said, according to ESPNcricinfo, ’27 years ago we won there under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga. Muttiah Muralitharan got 16 wickets there and I scored a double century. Aravinda de Silva scored 150 runs. The Oval is a place we can never forget. But the conditions where these players played were completely different.’

Credit for this victory goes to all the players: Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya further said, ‘It was a very difficult situation because the grass was different and the weather was also in the host’s favour. The credit for this victory goes to all the players. The fielders did very good fielding and the batsmen did their job well in the second innings.’

Talking about the match, in the third Test, England scored 325 runs after losing all wickets in their first innings, in response to which Sri Lanka was all out for 263 runs in their first innings. After this, the host failed to bat well in their second innings and were all out for 156 runs. Sri Lanka achieved the target of 219 runs by losing two wickets. Even though Sri Lanka won the third Test, England won this Test series 2-1.