Late City Edition Friday 5th February, 2010 15 by Russell Palipane County cricket Sri Lanka also proved victorious with despite Sachin Tendulkar’s 137 runs, have not had the opportunity of meet- with Kent the same numbers in the subsequent Sri Lanka cruised to a comfortable six ing Aravinda de Silva on more than Following the Sri three-match ODI-series against Pakistan, wicket victory. Ione occasion. Lanka tour of New where he was Sri Lanka’s leading wicket- In the quarter-finals, Sri Lanka I have talked to him on the phone Zealand, de Silva joined taker with five wickets at an average of defeated England by five wickets, the when the occasion demanded, but a face English county side Kent 17.80. first time they had ever beaten England to face meeting occured just once. in April 1995 on short In the Tri-nation Champions Trophy outside Sri Lanka. That was at the then Ceylon notice after Kent’s lead- tournament in Sharjah in October 1995, Their semi-final opponent was Continental Hotel (Hope I got the name ing batsman of the previ- with Pakistan and West Indies, each team India, who had beaten Pakistan in their right), as I had to interview him for an ous season, one time West ended up with two wins and two losses in quarter-final match. Winning the toss article which was to be published in ‘The Indies Captain Carl Island’ a few days after the meeting. Hooper, left to join the The dimunutive dasher was at our West Indies team for the meeting place a few minutes after sched- summer. The season ule, if I remember right. (Have I got that proved to be a mix with dis- right; gosh I cannot remember that; so appointment and success apologies to Aravinda if I am wrong). for Kent, as they finished His words were measured, quite like last (18th) in County when you hear his voice commentating Championship with only on TV. Quite in contrast to his batting, three wins and four draws Ara Ari Ara one would tend to say. out of 17 matches played. Dasher and measured? Their form in the 40- To me, he is a near perfect mix of the overs National Cricket dasher and the measured. Believe me, League was much better the preliminary round-robin stage and at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, India elect- such characters do exist. Rare cases they and they finished on top of West Indies and Sri Lanka were selected ed to field and had a very good start, are, but they live on this planet that is the league table with 12 wins, to play in the final due to their higher with Javagal Srinath dispatching the called Earth. four losses and one aban- run rates. Sri Lanka beat West Indies by Sri Lankan opening pair for only one doned match. In addition, 50 runs in the final. run. Coming in at number four, de Silva P. A. de Silva Kent reached the final of the Aravinda ended up with a modest 117 lead the Sri Lankan recovery, hitting 66 Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva was Benson & Hedges Cup, where runs at an average of 29.25 in five match- runs from 47 balls as Sri Lanka set a born October 17, 1965, in Colombo and they lost to Lancashire by 35 es. His batting form slumped lower in the target of 252 runs for India to chase. His initially made a name for himself while runs despite Aravinda’s 112. three-Test Series in Australia, where the 66 runs does not really stand out in sta- schooling at D. S. Senanayake College, Personally for de Sri Lankan batsmen struggled against tistics tables, however, it is regarded as Colombo. Silva, the time the bowling of Glenn McGrath, who one of his finest innings. spent with Kent took 21 wickets while de Silva managed In their response, the Indian batters Career marked the 98 runs at an average of 16.33. In the failed to score with the exception of He made his Test match debut in 1984 turning point third Test, he acted as captain after reg- Tendulkar (65 runs). After India had at Lord’s against England. During the in his career. ular skipper Arjuna Ranatunga pulled collapsed to 120 runs for 8 wickets at early part of his career he was known as He was the out due to a finger injury. 34.1 overs, a densely-packed home a dashing but inconsistent batsman - he third most pro- Aravinda de Silva The series was shrouded in contro- crowd vented their anger by throwing was given the nickname ‘Mad Max’ for lific batsman of versy, as in the first Test Sri Lanka was bottles on to the outfield and setting his tendency to get out to rash shots. He first found guilty of ball-tampering only fire to the seating. Eventually, match later commented on his aggressive bat- to be exonerated later by the referee, former West Indies captain ting style: “That’s my natural game - I International Cricket Council, while in Clive Lloyd had to abandon the game don’t want to change, because I feel con- Aravinda de Silva was instrumental in Sri the second Test, Australian umpire and Sri Lanka won by default. fident playing that way. If someone is Darrell Hair no-balled Sri Lanka’s However, the highlight of his career capable of dominating the bowling, they Lanka’s triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Muttiah Muralitharan seven times in just was almost certainly the 1996 World should do it. It’s the way I’ve been playing Cup, where his unbeaten century and three three overs, for throwing. Concurrently, Cup final against Australia, where he since I was a youngster.” But a successful with the Test series, Sri Lanka also par- took 3 wickets for 42 runs (including season playing first-class cricket for the wickets earned him the Man of the Match ticipated in the three-nation ODI series the wickets of Australian captain Mark English county Kent in 1995 marked a with Australia and West Indies. In the Taylor and present captain Ricky turning point in his career. award in the final against Australia. His seventh match of the tournament against Ponting), two catches and then followed Aravinda de Silva was instrumental other notable achievements include scoring West Indies, Muralitharan was again that up with 107 not out with the bat to in Sri Lanka’s triumph in the 1996 called for throwing and did not play again secure Sri Lanka a convincing 7 wicket Cricket World Cup, where his unbeaten a century in each innings of a Test match on in the ODI series. victory, thereby clinching the World century and three wickets earned him The tournament was won by Cup and also the Man of the Match the Man of the Match award in the final two separate occasions (only bettered by Australia, who beat Sri Lanka in both award. against Australia. His other notable India’s Sunil Gavaskar and Australia’s Ricky final matches, confirming their favourite His role in the final was recognised achievements include scoring a century position in the forthcoming ICC World by Wisden in 2002 as the eight most sig- in each innings of a Test match on two Ponting, who each performed this feat three Cup in the Indian sub-continent. In the nificant batting performance in ODI separate occasions (only bettered by absence of Ranatunga, de Silva cap- cricket, while his bowling was ranked India’s Sunil Gavaskar and Australia’s times). One of these doubles was 138 and tained Sri Lanka in the ODI tournament 82nd in the Wisden top 100 bowling Ricky Ponting, who each performed this 105, both undismissed, against Pakistan at until Ranatunga returned in the latter chart. feat three times). One of these doubles stages and finished the series as Sri was 138 and 105, both undismissed, SSC grounds, Colombo, in April 1997. Lanka’s top batsman with 258 runs at an Awards against Pakistan at SSC grounds, average of 25.80. Aravind de Silva was named as one Colombo, in April 1997. This made him In the 1996 World Cup, Sri Lanka, who of the five Wisden Cricketers of the the first and so far, the only player to hosted the cup together with India and Year in 1996. The Wisden list of top 100 score two not out centuries in the same embarrassingly lost a first-class match Pakistan, played only three games in the batting performances contains six Test match. As he had scored 168 in the the County Championship in 1995 after against the Pakistan Cricket Board preliminary rounds as both West Indies entries for him, only one less than Sir second innings of the previous Test, he Mark Ramprakash and Nasser Hussain Patron’s XI and the following first Test and Australia forfeited their matches in Vivian Richards, the former West hit three hundreds in eight days. He fin- with 1661 runs at an average of 59.32 and against Pakistan both by an innings. He Colombo due to security reasons. Indies captain. ished the year with 1220 runs at 76.25. six centuries, including the highest score joined the team only a few days before Neither Zimbabwe nor Kenya were Aravinda’s highest Test score of 267 of the season, 255. He was also often the second Test and was dismissed for a able to truly test the Sri Lanka team – Test match performance was made at the Basin Reserve in 1991 called to perform as fifth or sixth bowler.