Aravinda de Silva

Aravinda de Silva
අරවින්ද ද සිල්වා

Personal information
Full name	Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva
Born	(1965-10-17) 17 October 1965 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Nickname	Mad Max
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off break
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 27)	23 August 1984 v England
Last Test	23 July 2002 v Bangladesh
ODI debut (cap 37)	31 March 1984 v New Zealand
Last ODI	18 March 2003 v Australia
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1989–2002	Nondescripts Cricket Club
1995	Kent
1996/1997	Auckland
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODI FC LA Matches 93 308 220 392 Runs scored 6361 9284 15000 12095 Batting average 42.97 34.90 48.38 36.32 100s/50s 20/22 11/64 43/71 17/77 Top score 267 145 267 158* Balls bowled 2595 5148 9005 7377 Wickets 29 106 129 156 Bowling average 41.65 39.40 29.17 36.30 5 wickets in innings 0 0 8 0 10 wickets in match 0 n/a 1 n/a Best bowling 3/30 4/30 7/24 4/28 Catches/stumpings 43/– 95/– 108/– 116/–
Source: Cricinfo, 25 August 2007

Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva (Template:Lang-si; born 17 October 1965) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who is considered by some as one of the finest batsmen produced by the country in his era. He is also regarded as one of the most elegant batsman in his generation, and to date is the only player to make a hundred and take 3 or more wickets in a World cup final. He was the head of the national selection committee briefly before stepping down after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

Career

De Silva had his initial education in Isipathana College, Colombo and then he joined D. S. Senanayake College, Colombo. He made his Test match debut in 1984 at Lord's against England. During the early part of his career he was known as a dashing but inconsistent batsman – he was given the nickname "Mad Max" for his tendency to get out to rash shots. He later commented on his aggressive batting style: "That's my natural game – I don't want to change because I feel confident playing that way. If someone is capable of dominating the bowling, they should do it. It's the way I've been playing since I was a youngster." But a successful season playing first-class cricket for the English county Kent in 1995 marked a turning point in his career. De Silva was instrumental in Sri Lanka's triumph in the 1996 Cricket World Cup where his unbeaten century and three wickets earned him the Man of the Match award in the final against Australia. His other notable achievements include scoring a century in each innings of a Test match on two separate occasions (only bettered by India's Sunil Gavaskar and Australia's Ricky Ponting, who each performed this feat three times). One of these doubles was 138 and 105, both undismissed, against Pakistan at Colombo's Sinhalese Sports Club in April 1997. This made him the first, and so far only, player to score two not out centuries in the same Test match. As he had scored 168 in the second innings of the previous Test, he posted three hundreds in eight days. He finished the year with 1220 runs at 76.25.

De Silva's highest test score of 267 was made at Basin Reserve in 1991 against New Zealand. He scored another double century in his final Test innings as well as picking up a wicket with his final delivery in Test cricket (against Bangladesh in 2002), thus retiring with a place in cricket's history secure – from all international cricket after the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

County cricket with Kent

Following the Sri Lankan tour of New Zealand De Silva joined the English county side Kent in April 1995 on short notice after Kent's leading batsman of the previous season, Carl Hooper, left to join the West Indies team for the summer. The season proved to be a mix of disappointment and success for Kent, as they finished last (18th) in County Championship with only three wins and four draws out of 17 matches played. Their form in the 40-overs National Cricket League was much better, and they finished on top of the league table with 12 wins, four losses and one abandoned match. In addition, Kent reached the final of Benson & Hedges Cup, where they lost to Lancashire by 35 runs despite de Silva's 112 runs. Personally for de Silva, the time spent with Kent marked the turning point in his career. He was the third most prolific batsman of the County Championship in 1995 after Mark Ramprakash and Nasser Hussain with 1661 runs at an average of 59.32 and six centuries including the highest score of the season, 255. He was also often called to perform as fifth or sixth bowler, a role where he proved to be relatively economic but inefficient wicket-taker.

1996 World Cup

De Silva did not play in Kent's two last County Championship matches having left to join the Sri Lankan squad on their tour of Pakistan. Sri Lanka had embarrassingly lost a first-class match against Pakistan Cricket Board Patron's XI and the following first Test against Pakistan both by an innings. He joined the team only few days before the second Test and was dismissed for a duck in the first innings; however, in Sri Lanka's second innings his third wicket stand of 176 runs with Chandika Hathurusingha helped to win the Test for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka went on to win the third Test and clinch the Test series against Pakistan 2–1. Sri Lanka also proved victorious with the same numbers in the subsequent three-match ODI-series against Pakistan, where de Silva was Sri Lanka's leading wicket-taker with five wickets at an average of 17.80.

In the three-nation Champions Trophy tournament in Sharjah in October 1995 with Pakistan and West Indies each team ended up with two wins and two losses in the preliminary round-robin stage, and West Indies and Sri Lanka were selected to play in the final due to their higher run rates. In the final Sri Lanka proved victorious by 50 runs. De Silva ended up with a modest 117 runs at an average of 29.25 in five matches. His batting form slumped lower in the three-test Series in Australia, where the Sri Lankan batsmen struggled with the bowling of Glenn McGrath, who took 21 wickets while de Silva managed 98 runs at an average of 16.33. In the third test he acted as captain after the regular captain Arjuna Ranatunga pulled out due to finger injury. The series was shrouded in controversy, as in the first Test Sri Lanka was first found guilty of ball-tampering only to be exonerated later by International Cricket Council, while in the second Test the Australian umpire Darrell Hair no-balled Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan seven times in just three overs for throwing. Concurrently with the Test series Sri Lanka also participated in three-nation ODI series with Australia and West Indies. In the seventh match of the tournament against West Indies Muralitharan was again called for throwing and did not play again in the ODI series. The tournament was won by Australia, who beat Sri Lanka in both final matches, confirming their favourite position in the forthcoming ICC World Cup in the Indian sub-continent. In the absence of Ranatunga, de Silva captained Sri Lanka in the ODI tournament until Ranatunga returned in the later stages and finished the series as Sri Lanka's top batsman with 258 runs at an average of 25.80.

In 1996 World Cup, Sri Lanka, who hosted the cup together with India and Pakistan, played only three games in the preliminary rounds as both West Indies and Australia forfeited their matches in Colombo due to security reasons. Neither Zimbabwe nor Kenya were able to truly test Sri Lanka team – in both matches de Silva was selected man-of-the-match following his 91 and 145 runs with bat. De Silva's 145 from 115 balls against Kenya was the highest ever score for Sri Lanka in ODIs, and the third highest in 1996 World Cup. India proved a stronger opponent, but despite Sachin Tendulkar's 137 runs, Sri Lanka cruised to a comfortable six wicket victory.

In the quarter-finals Sri Lanka defeated England by five wickets, the first time they had ever beaten England outside Sri Lanka. Their semi-final opponent was India, which had beaten Pakistan in their quarter-final match. Winning the toss at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, India selected to field and had a very good start with Javagal Srinath dispatching the Sri Lankan opening pair for only one run. Coming in at number four, de Silva lead the Sri Lankan recovery hitting 66 runs from 47 balls as Sri Lanka set a target of 252 runs for India to chase. His 66 runs does not really stand out in statistics tables, however is regarded as one of his finest innings. In their response, the batsmen of India failed to score with the exception of Tendulkar (65 runs). After India had collapsed to 120 runs for 8 wickets at 34.1 overs, a densely packed home crowd vented their anger by throwing bottles on to the outfield and setting fire to the seating. Eventually the match referee Clive Lloyd had to abandon the game and Sri Lanka won by default.

However, the highlight of his career was almost certainly the 1996 World Cup Final against Australia, where he took 3 wickets for 42 runs (including the Australian captain Mark Taylor and the future captain Ricky Ponting), two catches and then followed that with 107 not out with the bat to secure Sri Lanka a convincing 7 wicket victory, thereby clinching the World Cup, and also the Man of the Match award. His role in the final was recognised by Wisden in 2002 as the eight most significant batting performance in ODI cricket while his bowling was ranked 82nd in Wisden top 100 bowling chart.

On 28 July 2007 he made a one-off appearance for a friend for Dorset county league side Sherborne.

Career Centuries

Main article: List of international cricket centuries by Aravinda de Silva

Recognition

De Silva was selected one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1996 and one of the five Indian Cricketers of the Year in 1990. The Wisden list of top 100 batting performances contains six entries for him, only one less than the West Indies batsman Viv Richards.

Aravinda de Silva's career performance graph.

Test match performance

• Test debut: vs England at Lord's, London August 1984.
• Last Test: vs Bangladesh at Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo July 2002.
• Captained Sri Lanka in six Tests: two draws and four losses.

ODI performance

• ODI debut: vs New Zealand at Moratuwa, 31 March 1984.
• Last ODI: vs Australia at St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, 18 March 2003.
• Captained Sri Lanka in 18 One-day Internationals: 5 victories, 12 losses and 1 no result.

International Awards

Test Cricket

Man-of-the-series awards

Date	Opponent	Record/Series link
1	October – November 1985	Pakistan	250 runs at an average of 50.00, 0/22 (three match series)
2	December 1989	Australia	314 runs at an average of 104.66, 3/110, 1 catch (two match series)
3	July – August 1993	India	266 runs at an average of 53.20, 0/17 (three match series)
4	April 1997	Pakistan	432 runs at an average of 216.00, 0/16, 1 catch (two match series)

Man-of-the-match awards

Date	Opponent	Ground	Record/Scorecards
1	21 October 1985	Pakistan	Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad	122 runs
2	11 November 1985	Pakistan	National Stadium, Karachi	13 & 105 runs
3	12 December 1989	Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane	167 runs, 1 catch, 1/45
4	20 December 1989	Australia	Bellerive Oval, Hobart	75 & 72 runs, 2/65
5	5 March 1991	New Zealand	Eden Park, Auckland	96 & 123 runs, 1 catch
6	30 April 1997	Pakistan	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	138* & 103* runs, 1 catch
7	13 August 1997	India	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	146 & 120 runs
8	23 November 1997	India	Punjab C.A. Stadium, Mohali	33 & 110* runs
9	18 January 1998	Zimbabwe	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	27 & 143*, 0/33 & 2/61, 1 catch
10	11 September 1999	Australia	Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy	78 & 31* runs, 0/5, 2 catches
11	1 March 2000	Pakistan	Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi	112 & 21 runs, 0/10, catch

ODI Cricket

Man-of-the-series awards

No.	Date	Opponents	Record/Series link
1	August – September 1996	Zimbabwe, India, Australia	334 runs (not out in all four matches), 0/67, 1 catch (four matches)
2	April 1997	Zimbabwe, Pakistan	410 runs at an average of 102.50, 0/135, 1 catch (five matches)
3	June – July 1998	India, New Zealand	368 runs at an average of 73.60, 1/59, 2 catches (five matches)

Man-of-the-match awards

Date	Opponent	Ground	Record/Scorecards
1	3 November 1984	New Zealand	Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo	50* runs, 2 catches
2	23 October 1985	Pakistan	Municipal Stadium, Gujranwala	86 runs, 1 catch
3	25 March 1988	India	Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium, Sharjah	88 runs, 2/28
4	29 October 1988	India	Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka	69 runs, 1/36, 1 catch
5	25 October 1989	Australia	Nehru Stadium, Margao	96 runs, 0/36
6	8 December 1990	India	Nehru Stadium, Margao	63* runs, 1/9
7	15 August 1992	Australia	Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo	105 runs
8	20 March 1993	England	Tyronne Fernando Stadium, Moratuwa	75* runs, 1/22
9	4 September 1993	South Africa	Khettarama Cricket Stadium, Colombo	61* runs
10	20 February 1994	India	Gandhi Stadium, Jalandhar	32* runs, 2/30
11	6 November 1994	Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club, Harare	107* runs
12	20 October 1995	West Indies	Sharjah C.A. Stadium, Sharjah	50 runs, 1 catch
13	21 February 1996	Zimbabwe	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	91 runs, 1 catch
14	6 March 1996	Kenya	Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy	145 runs
15	13 March 1996	India	Eden Gardens, Calcutta	66 runs, 1/3, 1 catch
16	17 March 1996	Australia	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore	107* runs, 3/42, 2 catches
17	30 August 1996	Australia	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	83* runs, 0/25
18	3 September 1996	Zimbabwe	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	127* runs
19	7 September 1996	Australia	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	75* runs, 0/18
20	3 April 1997	Zimbabwe	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	60 runs, 0/34
21	4 April 1997	Pakistan	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	97 runs, 0/29
22	7 April 1997	Pakistan	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	134 runs, 0/30
23	11 April 1997	Pakistan	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	87 runs, 0/42, 1 catch
24	27 May 1997	Pakistan	Eden Gardens, Calcutta	57 runs, 1/26, 1 catch
25	24 August 1997	India	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	104 runs
26	28 December 1997	India	Nehru Stadium, Margao	82* runs, 0/14
27	1 July 1998	India	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo	62 runs, 1/27, 1 catch
28	29 May 2000	Bangladesh	Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka	96* runs, 1/18, 1 catch
29	15 August 2002	South Africa	National Cricket Stadium, Tangier	73* runs, 0/9
30	19 August 2002	South Africa	National Cricket Stadium, Tangier	77* runs, 0/52
31	27 September 2002	Australia	R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	2* runs, 1/16