OTD | Former legendary Sri Lankan batter Sanath Jayasuriya was born in 1969 

Sanath Jayasuriya was one of the key factors in Sri Lankan cricket for nearly three decades and made the sport exciting. His cavalier batting, left-arm spin, and electric fielding made him a huge player in the sport. It was Sanath Jayasuriya’s batting during the 1996 ODI World Cup that reshaped the way the white ball format was played and helped his team win their only ODI World Cup title.

Born on the 30th of June in 1969, Sanath Jayasuriya first caught the attention of the domestic selectors as a left-arm spinner. His international bow came in 1989 as a young 20-year-old in Melbourne in an ODI game against Australia. His only major contribution came when he caught David Boon for 11 and scored a mere 3 runs with the bat.

Sanath Jayasuriya made his Test debut in 1991 during the New Zealand tour. The youngster scored 35 with the bat while batting in the middle-order. Jayasuriya wasn’t given a chance to bowl as the match ended in a draw.

Sanath Jayasuriya: A legendary star who redefined cricket

Just like India’s Kris Srikkanth had done in the 1980s, Sanath Jayasuriya made ODI cricket exciting by slamming bowlers over the field. He did the same even in the longest format of the game to enjoy perhaps the best decade and a half by a batter.

His first ODI ton came in 1994 against New Zealand where he slammed 140 in a rained-out game. During the 1996 ODI World Cup, he single-handedly ended the career of Manoj Prabhakar with his aggressive batting.

1997 was special for Jayasuriya as he scored 340 against India during a Test match and added over 500 runs with Roshan Mahanama. Sri Lanka ended with 952 on the board which is still a record in Test cricket. The same year in Mumbai, Jayasuriya slammed an unbeaten 151 off 120 balls with 17 fours and 4 sixes to win the match for his side.

After Arjuna Ranatunga stepped down as the skipper, Jayasuriya was given the mantle of leading the side. The left-handed batter continued to torment India when he scored 189 not out in a Sharjah Cup final that saw India famously being bowled out for 54.

With the ball, Jayasuriya’s best moment in ODI cricket came in 1993 when playing against England in front of his home crowd he picked 6/29. Jayasuriya’s best bowling in Test Cricket was when he picked 9/74 vs Zimbabwe in Galle with a best of 5/43 in the first innings. The Lankan star then uttered those figures when he played 5/34 vs South Africa two years later in Colombo.

By the time his career ended in 2011 at 42, Sanath Jayasuriya had played 445 ODI matches and scored 13,430 runs with 28 centuries and 68 fifties with 323 wickets. In the Test format, Jayasuriya played 110 matches and scored 6973 runs with 14 centuries and 31 fifties with 98 wickets added to his kitty. In the T20 format, Jayasuriya played 31 matches, scored 629 runs with 4 fifties and picked 19 wickets with the ball.  

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