Top 3 bowling performances of Nuwan Zoysa in Tests

Sri Lanka’s star cricketer, Nuwan Zoysa, has been known as one of the greatest and most destructive left-arm pacers in cricket history. He has taken his side to the epitome of the level with his huge success. Notably, the Colombo-born cricketer was also the first cricketer in history to take a hat-trick off his first three balls of the Test match during his eighth game.

Nuwan made his debut against New Zealand on March 7, 1997, and went on to play 30 games with 64 wickets in the red-ball game. In the same vein, here are his top three test knocks:

5/20 vs Zimbabwe, 2004

The star cricketer’s top spell came during the first Test match against Zimbabwe, which was played from May 6 to 8 in 2004 in Harare. Notably, the left-arm pacer picked up five wickets in the second inning and single-handedly guided his side to a terrific win. 

Speaking about the game here, Zimbabwe scored 199 and 102 runs, respectively, in the first and second innings, respectively. However, Sri Lanka made 541 runs in the first inning and went on to defeat the hosts by 240 runs.

4/54 vs Australia, 2004

The left-arm pacer’s second-best spell came against Australia in the second Test match, which was played from March 16 to March 20, 2004. However, his second-best spell came in the losing cause, as Australia were able to win by 27 runs in Kandy. 

Speaking about the game here, Australia has made 120 runs as Nuwan was able to scalp four wickets to bundle them out early. However, the visiting side made 442 runs in the second inning, while Sri Lanka failed to chase down the total and lost the Test game.

4/76 vs South Africa, 2001

His third top spell in a Test game also came in the losing cause as Sri Lanka suffered an embarrassing defeat against the Proteas during the third Test game, which was played from January 20 to 22, 2001, in Centurion. 

The Colombo-born cricketer had scalped four wickets in a Test match, but his side suffered the loss by an innings and seven runs.