Sri Lankan legend and birthday boy Sanath Jayasuriya is among the extraordinary breed of batters that this world has ever seen. Many are aware of his revolutionary intent, especially in ODIs. Jayasuriya began his explosive batting technique back in the mid-90s, which was quite unusual back then. This led to teams going in to bat with a hard-hitting intent.
Extraordinary players always come up with extraordinary records and stats. Many such are associated with Jayasuriya. Once, during a match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan -- the Singer Cup final – the former had scored 70 runs and lost just one wicket. But there was something special about this scorecard.
The batter who got out was Romesh Kaluwitharana. Jayasuriya’s 1996 World Cup-winning opening partner got out for a duck while Jayasuriya batted on 66. This was absolute dominance of Jayasuriya over the opponent was seen.
In this match, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. They were not able to bat for fifty overs as the Sri Lankan bowlers ran riot and bowled out their batting lineup for 215.
Jayasuriya, who opened for Sri Lanka, was in no mood for a settled run chase, as he smashed the fastest ODI half-century at that time. He reached the milestone in a mere 17 balls, providing Sri Lanka a flying start.
Romesh on the other end was not even able to open his account. He was bowled out by Aaqib Javed. Jayasuriya went on to score a quick 76 off 28 deliveries. However, his team were unable to chase down the target of 216 set by Pakistan and were all out for 172. They lost to Pakistan by 43 runs but Jayasuriya’s innings is remembered for his batting heroics.
In 1996, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan were in Singapore to play a Triangular tournament named Singer Cup. All the teams played one match against each other and won one each. Pakistan and Sri Lanka were the top two teams as there net run rate was better than India.
Jayasuriya, who was adjudged the player of the tournament in the 1996 World Cup, achieved the same feat in the Singer cup. He scored 217 runs in three innings, with a magnificent batting average of 72.33. His campaign in the tournament ended with a century and a half-century each.
