Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Ajantha Mendis
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Mendis, although classified as slow-medium, bowls a mixture of deliveries, including googlies, off-breaks, top-spinners, flippers and leg-breaks, as well as the carrom ball, released with a flick of his middle finger. For Sri Lanka Army in 2007-08 he averaged a mere 10.56 and took 46 wickets in six games, his strike rate a startling 31. This gained him a call-up to the full Sri Lanka squad for the Caribbean tour in April 2008.
His best bowling performance in a One Day International came in the final of the 2008 Asia Cup, where he took 6 wickets for 13 runs in just his eighth match. His 17 wickets in the tournament earned him the Man of the Series award.
Mendis made his One Day International debut against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 2008 and took 3 for 39. He also plays for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
His first Test Match was against India at Colombo on July 23, 2008 in which he returned match figures of 8-132, thereby becoming the first Sri Lankan bowler to get an eight-wicket haul on Test debut.
Ajantha Mendis won the Emerging Player of the Year award at the LG ICC Awards ceremony held in Dubai in September 2008.
On March 3, 2009, the bus that carried the Sri Lankan cricketers to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, for the third day's play of the second Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, was fired at by masked gunmen. Mendis was among seven Sri Lankan cricketers who were injured in the attack, which killed five policemen who guarded the bus.
On August 6, 2010, Mendis scored his maiden half century, 78 against India. Notably he faced the most balls of all the batsmen in the innings, something rare for a number 10 batsman.Born on March 11, 1985, Mendis hails from a hamlet in Moratuwa. He is the third child in a family of five with an elder brother and a sister. He was raised Catholic. He has had his basic education at St Anthony's College at Kadalana in his village where there were no facilities at all for sports. He subsequently entered Moratuwa Maha Vidyalaya in the year of 2000. During a cricket coaching class, Mendis' talents were initially identified by the school coach named Mr Lucky Rogers back in the year 1998 when he was just 13 years of age. In the year 2000 he represented the school under 15 cricket team and he was selected to the first eleven team. He also deputized for the school team captain. This slow medium bowler with a variation of leg spin was adjudged the Best Bowler at the big-matches twice in 2001 and 2002.
Military career
Sri Lanka Army Cricket Committee noticed his talents when he played a cricket match against the Army under 23 Division 11 during 2003/2004 tournaments. Following this he was invited to enlist in the regular force of the Sri Lanka Army, this was particularly due to the low number of cricketers from Colombo schools joining the Army in the recent years. He enlisted, partly due to the reason that his father, the bread-winner for the family had died the week before due to a heart attack.
Following basic training he played for the army team and saw active military service as a Gunner in the Sri Lanka Artillery,a regiment of the Sri Lanka Army. Following the Asia Cup final, he has been promoted to the rank of Sergeanton 7 July 2008 and the next day commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.
Domestic cricket
Mendis has represented the Army in 23 limited over matches and 59 two/three day matches, in which he has 38 wickets and 244 wickets respectively to his credit. Mendis bowls off spin as his stock delivery and he has few more variations in his armory- leg spin, top spin and faster bowl. All this was developed during 2006/2007 domestic seasons on his own. He also extended his purple patch in the domestic season 2007/2008 under 23 division 1 tournament and was later selected to the pool of "Academy Squad" organized by Sri Lanka Cricket. There he was able to polish his cricketing skills further. He had the opportunity of touring neighboring India on an eight-day tour in June 2007 where he was given the opportunity to play two, two-day matches. In the meantime, Sri Lanka Cricket selectors could not ignore his performance in the Premier Limited Over Tournament 2007/2008 and got him selected to play in the "Provincial Tournament 2008" representing "Wayamba Province" under the National Captain. In that tournament he performed exceptionally well with the ball. Local TV commentators predicted him as the ideal replacement for senior spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in time to come and nicknamed him as "Mysterious Bowler". His performance in the said tournament got the National Selectors to observe him further closely, after he became the most successful bowler by taking 68 wickets in nine matches which is also a record in any form of domestic cricket.
In the 2010 County Championship Mendis was to play for Hampshire as their overseas player for the season as a replacement for Imran Tahir, but he was unable to fulfill his contract and never appeared for the county.
He now, however, has confirmed that he will be playing for South West side Somerset in the upcoming 2011 English domestic season.
Bowling style
Mendis bowling
The veteran West Indies cricket writer Tony Becca wrote in the Jamaica Gleaner: "Mendis bowls everything. With a smile on his face as he caresses the ball before delivering it, he bowls the offbreak, he bowls the legbreak, he bowls the googly, he bowls the flipper, he bowls a straight delivery, he bowls them with different grips and different actions, he bowls them with a different trajectory and at a different pace, and he disguises them brilliantly. The result is that he mesmerises, or bamboozles, batsmen.
Jerome Jayaratne, the Sri Lanka Cricket Academy coach, said: "Mendis is unusual, freaky and has developed a ball which he releases with a snap of his fingers (carrom ball), which is very unusual compared to other orthodox spin bowlers." That ball is reminiscent of the former Australia spinner Johnny Gleeson, who had a similar delivery.
Although the ball can be made to either turn away or into a right-handed batsman, Mendis uses it to turn away from a right-handed batsman, in order to contrast it with his off-breaks and googlies. The Australian Test cricketer and coach Peter Philpott actually predicted the rise of a bowler such as Mendis in a book written in 1973.
"...Eventually I see the Iverson method being best employed by an orthodox off-spinner. Instead of a basic Iverson attack with occasional orthodox off-spin, there is a great future for an accurate off-spinner who produces a difficult to detect leg spinner every now and then. I could visualise such a bowler causing great concern amongst batsmen, and young off-spinners might be well rewarded for experimentation in this field..."
International career
One day internationals
Ajantha Mendis made his One Day International debut against West Indies in at the Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad, on 10 April 2008. He announced his arrival on the international stage with three for 39 off 100 overs in this game, and dumbfounded the West Indian batsmen with his range of variations without a perceptible change in his action. Rob Steen summed up the impact of this initial performance by stating "I have just seen the future of spin bowling - and his name is Ajantha Mendis."
Ajantha Mendis, playing his eighth ODI, picked up the first six-wicket haul in the Asia Cup final against India in July 2008. His 6 for 13 is the third-best bowling performance in a tournament final, and the third-best for a spinner in ODIs. His 17 wickets is the best for an edition of the Asia Cup, and he bagged those wickets at an astounding average of 8.52. Ajantha Mendis won the man of the match award in the finals as well as the player of the tournament award for his efforts.
Upul Tharanga
Tharanga's Sri Lankan call-up in July 2005 made for a mixed 2005, after his family home was washed away by the Asian tsunami. His equipment, which was also washed away, was replaced by Kumar Sangakkara. Tharanga graduated to the "A" team and in July he was selected for the full squad.
On the 2006 tour of England he really began to develop, particularly in the one-day game, scoring over 300 runs in Sri Lanka's 5-0 whitewash of the hosts. In addition, Tharanga is also well known for taking part in a record-breaking first wicket partnership with Sanath Jayasuriya in the final match of this series. He finished off with 109 off 102 balls, and played a pivotal role in completing the whitewash against England.
Tharanga lost his form in the 2007 World Cup scoring only one half century (against New Zealand) he then continued his poor run of form in the home series against England in 2007 where he failed to contribute and often fell before the 10th over often resulting in a middle-order collapse. Subsequently he lost his ODI place to Malinda Warnapura and his test place to Michael Vandort but he remains within the squad.
However, in the 2011 World Cup, he is back to performing remarkably. In the quarter-final game against England, his partnership with Dilshan could not be pierced. Together they wrapped up the game, each acquiring centuries. His strong form has returned him to the opening position in the strong Sri-Lankan batting line up.
He has also come in for special praise from Jayasuriya, one of the greats of cricket, saying that he could be the next captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Thisara Perera
Perera attended St. Joseph's College, Colombo, which has produced Sri Lankan cricketers such as Chaminda Vaas and Angelo Mathews. He represented Sri Lanka at various youth levels, and was selected for the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. In November 2008, he made his first class debut for the Colts Cricket Club.
following month, he was purchased by the Chennai Super Kings for US$50,000 in the auction for the 2010 Indian Premier League. In May 2010, he made his Twenty20 international debut, representing Sri Lanka in the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies. He took his first five-wicket haul in international cricket in August 2010, earning him the player of the match award in an ODI victory over India. He was a member of the Sri Lankan team that in October 2010 inflicted Australia's first defeat in a Twenty20 international in Australia, bringing up Sri Lanka's final 16 runs to win the match off three deliveries. He took five wickets in an ODI against Australia on the same tour.
Perera was a member of Sri Lanka's squad for the 2011 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. He was part of the team defeated in the final of the tournament by India, scoring 22 not out off ten deliveries and taking the wicket of Gautam Gambhir. His price increased for the 2011 Indian Premier League, fetching US$80,000 from the Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Later in the year he was selected in Sri Lanka's Test squad for a series against England. He made his debut in the first Test of the series at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. In an innings defeat, he scored 25 and 20 with the bat and took no wickets. He was not selected for the Test series against Pakistan later in the year, being retained only for the ODI and Twenty20 sides, but was recalled to the Test team for the end-of-year tour of South Africa. He played in all three Tests of the tour, scoring 81 runs and taking five wickets. He played two ODIs on the tour and scored his first half-century in the format—69 not out off 44 balls—to help Sri Lanka to victory in the fourth of the five-match series in Kimberley. In the 2nd ODI of 2012 series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he done brilliant late-order hitting and became first ever person to take 6 wickets against Pakistan in an ODI - his career best. This performance won him the Man of the Match as well. In the 4th ODI of the same series, he shocked Pakistan by taking a hat-trick and managing a run-out in his maiden over and became first Sri Lankan to register a hat-trick against Pakistan.
Rangana Herath
Herath joined the Sri Lankan squad in 2008 to face West Indies, for two Tests and three ODIs. In one of his warm up matches he got a five wicket haul.
He played a few matches for Surrey during the latter part of the 2009 English cricket season.
In April 2010, Herath joined Hampshire, where he played in the first half of the 2010 County Championship before fellow Sri Lankan Ajantha Mendis replaced him for the second half of the season.
Playing career
Test cricket
Australia (1999)
Rangana Herath ascended to prominence against Australia in 1999 with a "mystery" ball. He broke into the national side after an impressive A tour to England. Herath while playing in two test matches in the series, deceived the visiting Australians with a delivery that darted the other way. He took six test wickets against the Australians.
India, West Indies (2010)
Herath played only in the test at Galle during the home series against India. Though Sri Lanka won, he only managed to take the wicket of Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh in that match. Herath was recalled for the second test match against the West Indies in November 2010. In that match played at the newly renovated R. Premadasa Stadium, he took three wickets in the first innings.
Sri Lanka Tour in South Africa (2011)
In the second Test of Sri Lanka's tour of South Africa in December 2011, Herath took nine wickets and won the Man of the Match award. Sri Lanka won the match by 208 runs; it was their first Test win in South Africa.
England Tour in Sri Lanka (2012)
Herath took 12 Wickets during the first test match of the 2012 England Vs. Sri Lankan Test Series. His match winning performance helped him to secure the "Man of the Match" award in Galle. Rangana Herath was England's latest spin tormentor with 6 for 74 during the first inning and he took another 6 wickets for just 97 runs and confirmed the Sri Lanka's victory against touring English team.
ODI Series against Pakistan( 2012)
Herath has been ruled out of the 5 match ODI series against Pakistan due to problem in his knees.
Angelo Mathews
He made his international debut in a One Day International against Zimbabwe in November 2008.
In the Indian Premier League, he originally played for the Kolkata Knight Riders team. In the fourth season of the Indian Premier League, he was contracted by Sahara Pune Warriors for US$950,000. He was ruled out of IPL, for up to 8 weeks, due to injury sustained during the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
In November 2010, he was named 'Personality of the Year' by Living Magazine in Sri Lanka.
After Kumar Sangakkara stepped down as captain following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Mathews was widely tipped to be Sri Lanka's next captain.
Mathews has been praised by Sangakarra to having good leadership qualities; Sangakarra had also tipped him to take over as captain after his resignation. Dilshan was later named as captain. However, Mathews was strangely overlooked as vice captain, with the selectors naming Thilina Kandamby, who had not played for Sri Lanka regularly or for a prolonged period as vice captain for Sri Lanka's 2011 ODI and T20 tour of England. But the move backfired on Duleep Mendis's selection panel, when Kandamby fared miserably with the bat, forcing them to drop the new vice captain. At the end of July 2011, Mathews was named as Dilshan's vice-captain.He was retained in the role after Dilshan resigned and was replaced by Mahela Jayawardene in January 2012.
Kumara Sangakkara
Sangakkara is described as one of the "most polished and prudent of batsmen" in cricket. Currently Kumar Sangakkara is placed at number 1 in ICC test rankings. With 8 double centuries, he is the third in the list of Test double century-makers, behind Donald Bradman and Brian Lara . He is also the first cricketer ever to score 150+ scores in four consecutive Test matches. As the wicket keeper, he has contributed to the 3rd highest number of dismissals in ODIs—382.[8] It includes 81 stumpings, which is the highest for a wicket keeper in one-day international cricket.
Sangakkara delivered the 2011 MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, which gained worldwide attention.[10] He was the youngest person and the first current international player to deliver that lecture, which was widely praised by the cricketing community for its outspoken nature.
On July 28 2012, Sangakkara and Jayawardene became only the fourth pair to register 30 100-plus international partnerships when they put on 121 in the third ODI against India.
Kumar Sangakkara was born to Kumari Surangana and Swarnakumara Sangakkara, an attorney-at-law at Matale, Sri Lanka in 1977.His parents settled in Kandy, where he grew up in his childhood. Kumar received his primary and secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy, a private boys' school in central highlands of Sri Lanka. He has two sisters: Thushari and Saranga, and an elder brother: Vemindra, all who have made national level achievements at their school-life. Sangakkara too started playing a number of sports: badminton, tennis, swimming, table tennis and cricket at the junior school. He was able to win national colors for badminton and tennis at his younger age. The then principal of the Trinity College, Leonard de Alwis, advised his mother to encourage Kumar to concentrate on cricket.
He represented his school's under-13 cricket XI under coach Upananda Jayasundera. Berty Wijesinghe coached Sangakkara for under-15, under-17, under-19 and first XI sqads. He was awarded The Trinity Lion, the most prestigious prize awarded for a Trinity sportsman, for his exceptional batting and wicket-keeping skills in the 1996 season, at the age of 19.Sangakkara was selected to represent Sri Lanka A cricket team at a tour to South Africa in 1998–99. His knock of unbeaten 156 against Zimbabwe A team at a one-day match,[18] helped him secure a place at the Sri Lankan national cricket team later that year.
Sanga did his Advanced Level examination in the Arts stream in 1996. He was also awarded The Ryde Gold Medal, for the best all-round student in his year at his school. Following his father, who is a lawyer in Kandy, he entered to the Law College of the University of Colombo, but was unable to finish his degree due to cricket tours. Kumar was a chorister and played the violin during his school-days.
Early career
At the age of 22 Sangakkara made his Test debut on 20 July 2000, keeping wicket in the first fixture of a three-match series against South Africa. Sri Lanka won the match and in his side's only innings Sangakarra batted at the fall of the third wicket and scored 23 runs before he was dismissed leg before wicket by spin bowler Nico Boje. He received his first man of the match award in the 2nd match of the Singer Triangular Series, 2000, scoring 85 runs against South Africa. He ended the series with 199 runs, at an average of 66.33, securing his place for the upcoming Test series against South Africa. Before reaching his first Test century, he was twice dismissed in the 90s, once against each of South Africa and England. In August 2001, India toured Sri Lanka for three Tests and in the opening match Sangakkara scored his first century. His innings of 105 not out at number three helped set up a ten-wicket victory for Sri Lanka. Later that year Sangakkara scored his second Test century, this time in the first of three matches against the touring West Indians.
He scored his first double-century against Pakistan in 2002, at the 2nd Asian Test Championship final. His performance helped Sri Lanka secure the Test championship. In April 2003, Sangakkara made his first ODI century against Pakistan, in a losing effort.Together with Marvan Atapattu, he made a partnership of 438 for the 2nd wicket—4th highest in the world—against Zimbabwe in 2004.In that game, he scored 270, his first 250+ score. In July 2005, he was selected to the ICC World XI ODI team but missed out from its Test counterpart.
As vice-captain
When Sri Lanka toured Bangladesh in February 2006 regular captain Marvan Atapattu was injured and Mahela Jayawardene became captain while Sangakarra was made vice-captain.[30] Pakistan toured Sri Lanka for two Test and three ODIs in March 2006, and with Atapattu still injured Jayawardene and Sangakkara remained captain and vice-captain respectively. The pair had only expected to hold the positions on an interim basis, but extended into a third series as Atapattu failed to recover in time tour tour England in April and ended up filling the roles full time. In July 2006, Sangakkara made his highest Test score to-date (287) against South Africa. In a record-breaking partnership with Mahela Jayawardene, he set up the world record for the highset partnership in Test cricket—624 runs—in this match.
On 6 December 2007 he made it to the top spot of ICC Test player rankings with a rating of 938, the highest rating ever achieved by a Sri Lankan player, and became the first batsman ever to score in excess of 150 in four consecutive tests.His skill was recognised worldwide when he earned selection for the ICC World XI One Day International team that competed against Australia in the Johnnie Walker Series in October 2005. Despite the World XI losing all of the one-day games by considerable margins, Sangakkara left the series with some credit, averaging 46. He was one of the winners of the 2008 inaugural Cricinfo awards for outstanding batting in Test cricket.
Sangakkara holds the record for fastest 8,000 runs (152 innings) in Test cricket. He broke the previous record set by Sachin Tendulkar (154 innings) during the third Test against India on 6 August 2010. He also holds the record for fastest 9,000 runs (172 innings) in Test cricket. He broke the previous record set by Rahul Dravid (176 innings) during the second Test against Pakistan on 3 November 2011. Sangakkara was billed as a future captain of Sri Lanka.On Sri Lanka's tour to England in May 2006, he was named the vice-captain of the side. On 3 March 2009, a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team convoy in Pakistan injured 6 Sri Lankan players including Sangakkara. Sangakkara suffered shrapnel wounds in his shoulder. In November 2006, Sangakkara made it to the ICC World XI Test team he missed out previous time. Next year, he signed an agreement to join the Warwickshire County Cricket Club. That year, he scored back-to-back double centuries against Bangladesh and became only the fifth cricketer in the history to do so.
In February 2009, the then captain of the Sri Lankan side, Mahela Jayawardene announced that he would step down from captaincy "in the best interests of the Sri Lankan team". He said he believed that it would give his successor around two years to build up to the2011 Cricket World Cup.[44] Therefore at the age of 31 and with the experience of 80 Tests and 246 ODIs, Sangakkara succeeded Jayawardene as Sri Lanka's captain in all formats of the game. His first engagement in the role was the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 hosted by England in June.[45] Sri Lanka became runners-up in the series after winning all the game in group and knock-out stages and being defeated by Pakistan in the final. Sangakkara made 64 not-out in the final, but was unable to take Sri Lanka for the championship.[46] Sri Lanka failed to reach to the knock-out stage of the ICC Champions Trophy in September 2009. The next Indian tour proved to be disastrous for the team, with Sri Lanka being beaten by India in Test sries 2–0 and ODI series 3–1.
Sri Lankan team under the captaincy of Sangakkara gained momentum and won the next Tri-series in Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, beating India as well. The Sri Lankans' tour of Australia proved to be very successful, in winning both the T20 and ODI series. This was Sri Lanka's first ever series victory in Australia.
A month in advance of the 2011 World Cup in March, Sangakkara decided that he would resign the captaincy after the tournament.[48] Sri Lanka reached the final of the tournament.[49] Throughout the tournament Sangakkara was in prolific form with the bat scoring 465 runs from 9 matches and was the third highest run scorer behind team-mate Tillakaratne Dilshan and India's Sachin Tendulkar. Days after guiding Sri Lanka to the finals of the World Cup, Sangakkara announced to the public he was stepping down as captain of the T20 and ODI teams. He offered to continue as Test captain if deemed necessary for transition to new skipper;[50] in the event Dilshan was appointed captain across all formats.[51] Reflecting on the decision afterwards, he said that "captaining Sri Lanka is a job that ages you very quickly ... It's rarely a job you will last long in ... I also had a two-year stint, and I enjoyed it at times, certainly on the field where our results showed we were one of the top two sides in the world for one-and-a-half years, especially in the shorter form of the game."
Post-captaincy
Sangakkara resigned the captaincy after the 2011 World Cup and was succeeded by Tillakaratne Dilshan
Sri Lanka's first fixture after the World Cup was a tour of England beginning in May. During the second match of a three Test series Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sangakkara's successor as captain, suffered a broken thumb. Sangakkara filled-in while Dilshan was off the pitch and formally assumed the captaincy for the final Test.The match ended in a draw and the series ended in a 1–0 victory for England; Sangakarra scored a century in the match, his first against England in nine Tests.[54]
Sangakkara was named the man of the series in 2011–12 Pakistan vs. Sri Lanka Test series—his first man of the series award in Test cricket. He made 516 runs in the 3 match series which was won by Pakistan 1–0. He scored his 8th Test double-century in that tournament.[56] This is the third highest number of double centuries made by a Test cricketer in history, behind Donald Bradman and Brian Lara, with 12 and 9 respectively. On August the same year, he was named the ODI Cricketer of the Year, wicket keeper-captain of the ICC World XI Test team, and won the ICC People's Choice Award in 2011 ICC Awards. In 2012, he was named one of the Wisden's five Cricketer's of the Year.
Sangakkara struggled when England toured Sri Lanka in 2012. He failed to score a half century during The Two Test match series. But he regained his form in the ODI series VS Pakistan where he twice scored in the 90s. In the following Test series Sangakkara continued his form with a 199, the scoreboard originally said he had scored the double century but it turned out to be a mistake. Sri Lanka later won the Test match. He followed this up with 195 in the game, again missing out on the double century. Sri Lanka drew the next two matches meaning Sri Lanka won the series 1-0. The first time they won a Test series since the retirement of Muttiah Muralitharan.
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Dilshan was born to a Malay father and a Sinhalese mother. He was educated at Kalutara Vidyalaya National School in Kalutara. He is now married to Sri Lankan teledrama actress Manjula Thilini. The marriage was celebrated in India during the 2008 IPL series, following Hindu rituals.Dilshan has a daughter from his second marriage and a son from his first marriage. Dilshan's brother, Tillakaratne Sampath, is a first-class cricketer in Sri Lanka.
On 29 December 2011, Sri Lanka registered their first ever Test win in South Africa. This also became their first Test win under Dilshan's captaincy. However, after losing the Test series 2–1 and the subsequent ODI series 3–2, Dilshan resigned and was replaced by Mahela Jayawardene.
His highest score in One Day Internationals came against India at the Bellerive Oval on 28th February, 2012. He scored 160* off 165 balls.
During this innings, he also shared a 200 run second run partnership with Kumar Sangakkara. This was the highest second wicket partnership for Sri Lanka in ODIs.Despite his performance Sri Lanka lost the match to India.
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