That Kapil Dev achieved many of his landmarks against Sri Lanka?
(20 Aug 2001)

Only ten of Kapil Dev's 131 Tests were played against Sri Lanka. But in these matches, the great Indian all rounder achieved many of his landmarks. For starters, at Kandy in 1985, playing his 71st Test, Kapil Dev became the highest Indian wicket taker, surpassing Bishen Bedi's long standing record of 266. When Sri Lanka visited India India the next season, Kapil Dev slammed a hundred off 74 balls in the first Test at Kanpur, the fastest century by an Indian in Test cricket. A fortnight later, and only a day after his 28th birthday, Kapil Dev, playing in his 83rd Test, took his 300th wicket in the third Test at Cuttack. He thus emulated Ian Botham's feat of scoring 3,000 and taking 300 wickets.

In the first Test of the 1993-94 series at Kandy, Kapil Dev equalled Sunil Gavaskar's record of 125 Tests - the most number of Tests by an Indian - and duly surpassed it in the next Test at Colombo. In the final Test of the same series, he surpassed Lance Gibbs' record of 27,115 balls - the most number of deliveries sent down by a cricketer during a Test career. In the return series against the Sri Lankans, played at home later that season, he drew level with Richard Hadlee as the highest wicket taker in Test cricket bagging his 431st wicket. This was in the second Test at Bangalore and a few days later, in the second Test at Ahmedabad he bagged the wicket of Hashan Tillekaratne to be all by himself at the peak with 432 wickets. That happened to be Kapil Dev's 130th and penultimate Test.

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