Cricketers who narrowly missed out on scoring three triple centuries in Tests
In Test matches, many players are part of the elite club of triple centuries. Scoring triple hundreds requires a lot of patience and concentration. A player has to play very long innings and has to curb his instinct of playing shots. Also, he has to be lucky as he needs support from the other end so that he is able to get to the 300-run figure. Many times a batsman has been very close to scoring one but he ran out of partners at the other end. Some players were able to reach the 300 figure more than once in their career. Here is the list of players who have the most triple centuries in Test matches.
But no player has been able to score three triple centuries. Some players did come close to scoring three triple centuries but were not able to get them. Let us look at those players.
#1 Kumar Sangakkara
The left-hand batsman from Sri Lanka was one of the best batsmen from the Sri Lankan soil. He scored more than 12000 runs in Tests matches at an average of over 57. His average is better than legends like Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, and Jacques Kallis.
Once in his career, he was able to score a triple century. He did that quite late in his career in 2014 against Bangladesh in Chittagong. He scored 319 from 482 and his innings included 32 fours and 8 sixes. He was the last wicket to fall. He was lucky that Nuwan Pradeep held the other end and he was able to reach the 300 run figure.
In 2004 in the second Test of the Sri Lanka tour of Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field first. Sri Lankan bowlers used the conditions really well and bowled out Zimbabwe for a partly 228. In reply, Sri Lanka batted brilliantly and it looked as if they batted on a different surface altogether. Captain Marvan Atapattu scored 249 and shared a 438 run partnership with Kumar Sangakkara. After Atapattu's departure, Sangakkara built another good partnership with Mahela Jayawardene. Sangakkara got out on the score of 270 from just 365 runs. His knock included 36 fours and 2 sixes. He was caught behind off Panyangara. He missed a well deserved 300 in that match.
In the first Test of South Africa's tour of SriLanka, South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first. Except for AB de Villeers, no other batsmen was able to score runs and South Africa was dismissed on the score of 169 in the first innings.
In reply, Sri Lanka lost Jayasuriya and Tharanga early but what followed was unreal. Sangakkara and Jayawardene build a partnership of 624 runs which became the highest partnership for any wicket, surpassing the Sri Lankan pair of Jayasuriya and Roshan Mahanama's partnership of 576 for the second wicket in 1997 against India. Sangakkara was caught behind off Hall on the score of 287 and he missed a well deserved triple hundred. Jayawardene went on a score one, and he got out on the score of 374 and missed breaking Lara's record.
Twice Sangakkara came close to scoring a triple century and once he was able to do so. If he would have reached the milestone on the other two occasions as well he could have been the first player to score three triple centuries in Test matches.