Mahela, Samaraweera shatter world record

Karachi: Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera on Sunday broke the long-standing world record for the fourth wicket established by England's Colin Cowdrey and Peter May against West Indies in 1957.

Jayawardene took a single of Shoaib Malik almost 30 minutes before tea on the second day of the first Test against Pakistan to take his partnership with Samaraweera past 411.

It is now the highest fourth-wicket record in Test cricket surpassing the previous feat set by Cowdrey and May at Edgbaston. The Sri Lankan duo broke records like ninepins.

They also took Sri Lanka past the 600-mark which means its now the highest runs in an innings at the National Stadium in Karachi. The previous highest (599-7) was scored by Pakistan against India in 2006.

They also broke the highest partnership record for any wicket. The previous record was established by the duo of Javed Miandad and Qasim Umar who put on 397 for the third wicket at Faisalabad in 1985.

They also broke the record for the highest partnership for any wicket at the National Stadium which was 298 between Aamir Sohail and Ijaz Ahmed against the West Indies in 1998.