Kumar Sangakkara becomes the first player to score 1000 runs in County Championship, 2017

Role changed, the format changed, the ball changed. But Kumar Sangakkara’s performance doesn’t seem to be affected by any of it as the Sri Lankan legend now has gone past 1000 runs in this season’s County Championship becoming the first player to do. Sangakkara was not so long ago, part of the Champions Trophy commentary panel and received a positive response after his stint.

He replicated his success in the English domestic circuit before taking up the new role, as he returned to his side Surrey scoring yet another big daddy century. His side played against Yorkshire at Leeds in the day/night round, played with the pink ball. Sangakkara came out to bat on day one with his side 3 down for 222. Despite wickets falling in the night session, he scored at a decent pace as remained unbeaten on 82 off 124 balls at the stumps.

On the 2nd day, the start was delayed by almost 3 hours but once they resumed, Sangakkara took over the Yorkshire attack with able support coming from Tom Curran. At his individual score of 94, the 39-year-old became the first player to complete 1000 runs in the 2017 County season. The left-handed batsman needed only 11 innings to achieve the milestone.

Soon he brought up his century of 136 balls with a boundary; his 6th ton this season and become the first Surrey player to score 6 first-class centuries in a season since Mark Ramprakash in 2008. Once he was done with the century, the Lankan was more dangerous as he took on Adil Rashid, the England leg-spinner. Rashid bowled 32 balls to Sangakkara, who scored 55 runs with 7 fours and two sixes from them. He brought up his 150 in 164 balls taking just 28 balls for his 3rd fifty of the innings.

Surrey declared their innings at 516/7, soon after Tom Curran fell for 43. Sangakkara remained unbeaten on 180 which he scored in just 183 balls gracing 21 fours and 4 sixes. He scored 98 of his runs on the 2nd day from just 56 balls. Had Sangakkara scored a double century, he would’ve earned the distinction of having 14 double hundreds in FC cricket; only behind 8 players in the history of this format.