Brian Lara added his name to another page of the record books in Colombo yesterday but it was not enough to save West Indies from a 10-wicket defeat in the third Test and the mortification of a 3-0 series whitewash - the first Sri Lanka have pulled off in 19 years as a Test-playing country.
The 32-year-old Trinidadian, world record holder for Test and first-class innings, became only the fifth player to score double and single centuries in the same Test, adding 130 yesterday to his first-innings 221 as West Indies went from 145 for two overnight to 262 all out, leaving the home side the soft target of 26.
The win moved Sri Lanka into equal third place with England in the ICC Test Championship standings.
The tourists' last five wickets went for 18 runs after Nuwan Zoysa slipped a reverse-inswinging yorker through Lara's hitherto impregnable defence, some feat considering the ball was 70 overs old. That left Lara with an aggregate of 688, the highest total in a three-Test series bar Graham Gooch's 752 against India in 1990-1.
But the home side had its heroes too, notably the left-armer Chaminda Vaas who finished the day with career-best figures of seven for 71 -and match figures of 14 for 191 - for a superb exhibition of reverse-swing on a dry pitch offering fast bowlers little help. The pick of his scalps yesterday was the consistent Ramnaresh Sarwan, ending a defiant stand of 141 runs with Lara with a full-length outswinger that veered away sharply to take the edge.
Test records were also on the agenda in Perth where New Zealand asked the Australians to score an unprecedented 440 to win the third and final Test. Having drawn twice, Steve Waugh's team went into the final day needing 371 runs to win or to survive a minimum of 90 overs to deny the Black Caps their first series win over the Baggy Green for 16 years.
"Probably the prospects of us winning the game are somewhat diminished now," said the Australian coach John Buchanan, something of an understatement after New Zealand declared at 256 for nine yesterday and the home side closed on 69 for two after losing Justin Langer for a duck and Ricky Ponting for 26.
Their volatile express bowler Brett Lee faces disciplinary action after giving New Zealand's Shane Bond pointed directions to the pavilion after bowling him yesterday.
· Kent's Robert Kay (117) and Middlesex's Andy Strauss (133) steered the England Academy side to 374 for four as the four-day match against their Australian equivalents got under way in Adelaide.