Cricket's Original Master Blaster!

TURN UP THE VOLUME ON YOUR SPEAKERS AND PC. LOW AUDIO, SORRY. Sri Lankan batsmen are considered the founders of pinch hitting. Here's why! Sri Lanka Vs England 1996 Wills Cricket World Cup Quarter finals. He may not be in the best of form right now, but Sanath Jayasuriya has left his mark on the cricket world with a series of stunning assaults. Most of the world's leading bowlers have been hit by Hurricane Sanath at some point. He was the player of the 1996 World Cup, most famously battering 82 off only 44 balls against England in the quarter-finals. In the same winter, against Pakistan in Singapore, he creamed 134 off only 65 balls. Jayasuriya is no one-day biffer, though: his 340 against India in Colombo in 1997-98 is the highest Test score by a Sri Lanka. In England in 1998 he hammered 213 at The Oval. And on the first morning of the 2000-01 series against South Africa, at Galle, he slashed a stunning 148 off only 156 balls, so demoralising the South Africans that they subsided to their first and only innings defeat to a side other than Australia and England. Jayasuriya can bowl too, though perhaps doesn't put himself on enough. Only one Sri Lankan spinner has taken more than his 69 Test wickets. During his stint as captain, he led Sri Lanka to nine Test wins in a row, after which he took them, against the odds, into the semi-final of World Cup 2003. But he lost his captaincy soon after that, and gracefully slid into the role of senior statesman.