Sanath Jayasuriya, the Sri Lanka captain, defies all conventions of
batsmanship when he is at the crease and at times he has been more than a
bowlers’
nightmare
Sa'adi Thawfeeq12-Aug-2001Sanath Jayasuriya, the Sri Lanka captain, defies all conventions of
batsmanship when he is at the crease and at times he has been more than a
bowlers’
nightmare. To say that Jayasuriya has more than a liking for the Indian
bowling maybe an understatement. For he has not only dominated them but
decimated them to the extent that bowlers like Manoj Prabhakar and Rajesh
Chauhan have been knocked out of the game and, Venkatesh Prasad and Anil
Kumble are still licking the wounds inflicted on them when India last
toured here four years ago.Sourav Ganguly , Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad (members of the present
team) will vividly recall what Jayasuriya did to them at the R. Premadasa
Stadium in August 1997 when he made the fourth highest score in Test
cricket – 340, keeping them on the field for as long as 13 hours and 19
minutes.After Nilesh Kulkarni became the first Indian bowler to take a wicket off
his first ball in Test cricket, India had to wait 1,103 balls for the next
wicket as Jayasuriya in liaison with Roshan Mahanama (225) shared Test
cricket’s highest (576) and longest (753 minutes) partnership. They became
the first pair to bat throughout two uninterrputed days of Test cricket.
Jayasuriya recalling that innings said that he ranked it along with the 199
he scored in the second Test of that series at the SSC, as the best of his
seven Test centuries.”I was middling the ball right from the beginning and I played with a lot
of confidence,” said Jayasuriya.”There are times, when a batsman plays out the first few overs, he knows he
is in good nick for a long innings. I had that feeling inside me that day,”
he said.Three other Test knocks which Jayasuriya said he felt the same way when he
made the runs, was the double century he scored against England at the Oval
in 1998, the 146 he made at Galle and the 85 he scored at the SSC, both
against South Africa last year.What makes Jayasuriya a threat to opposing bowlers is that there is no set
pattern in his approach to batting. He loses no time in taking the
initiative whether he hits the first ball of the innings for a six off a
square cut, a cover drive which lands in the stands or a flick off his legs
which flashes past the square-leg umpire. There is nothing transparent
about his batting.He is a master at pacing out his innings. A cautious half-century could
just be the platform for him to launch an all out assault on the bowling
later in the innings. One of the strong points of Jayasuriya’s batting is
his power. It is not just the new ball which flies off his bat, but the old
ball is also smashed with equal ease.How much Jayasuriya relishes the Indian bowling can be guaged by the fact
that he holds his country’s highest individual score in Test cricket (340)
and one-day internationals (189) against the same opposition.The 189 made in the Coca Cola final at Sharjah in November last year he
ranks as his best one-day innings largely because of the circumstances
under which he made it. Sri Lanka had lost four of their top batters for
116 runs, and with only Russel Arnold as the last recognised batsman,
Jayasuriya had to pace his innings out in such a manner that his side
finished with a match-winning total.”I batted under a lot of pressure. It was a difficult innings to play
because I was not able to take the risks I normally would in any other
circumstances. It restricted my stroke-play,” said Jayasuriya.Usually a batsman known to make most runs in the first 15 overs, Jayasuriya
showed another facet to his approach to batting. That he can bat through
the entire innings. He was captain and took the full responsibilities upon
himself. Needless to say, Sri Lanka rattled up an imposing total of 299 for
five wickets and bowled India out for a paltry 54 to win the final by a
mile.
Jayasuriya’s other notable one-day knocks against India have been his
unbeaten 151 in the Independence Cup tournament at Bombay and an unbeaten
120 at the R. Premadasa Stadium.India has found Jayasuriya a major obstacle to them at all levels of
cricket. He has been their tormentor for the past five years or so. Despite
his high success rate against Indian bowlers, Jayasuriya has a lot of
respect for them. “You have to respect the bowler if he is bowling well at
you. It is not easy as it sounds when you are out in the middle there. You
have only to make one mistake and it can be curtains,” said Jayasuriya, who
prepares himself for another Test series against India having given them a
hint of his present form with a match-winning knock of 99 in the Coca Cola
Cup tri-series final at the R. Premadasa Stadium last Sunday.SANATH JAYASURIYA’S RECORD AGAINST INDIA
TESTS T I NO HS Runs Avg 100s 50s Career 59 101 9 340 3604 39.17 7 16 v India 7 11 1 340 782 78.20 2 2ODI'S M I NO HS Runs Avg 100s 50s Career 242 234 8 189 6906 30.55 11 45 v India 46 44 3 189 1609 39.24 4 9
