Sanath Jayasuriya

Sanath Jayasuriya is a Sri Lankan cricketer who is a left handed batsman and an occasional slow left arm orthodox bowler. He is the sole cricketer in the world to score more than 12,000 runs and take more than 300 wickets in the ODIs.

Jayasuriya is particularly remembered for his aggressive tactics as an opening batsman in the 1996 cricket world cup. His was a novel, but match-winning tactic at that time. Jayasuriya is specifically known for his pulls and cuts and the shot over point is his trademark shot.

Jayasuriya�s method of batting is an all-aggression approach and he has dominated nearly every one day bowling combination that he had faced. Players like Adam Gilchrist and Shahid Afridi have a similar style, but Jayasuriya is regarded as the most dangerous batsman while in form. He is second highest in the world as far as number of one day centuries are concerned and has maximum number of 150+ scores.

From 1999 to 2003, Jayasuriya was the captain of the Sri Lankan team in 38 test matches. Jayasuriya has not only a good batting average in ODI and Test cricket but also a reasonable bowling average and a skillful infielder. As per a report of Cricinfo, after the 1999 World Cup, Jayasuriya is involved with the maximum number of run-outs in ODI cricket.

In 1997, the second wicket partnership of Jayasuriya with Roshan Mahanama of 576 runs is an all time record for any partnership in Test history. Jayasuriya has also scored the second highest ODI score of 189 runs, which he shares with Vivian Richards. The fastest fifty in the ODIs is also scored by Jayasuriya, which he created in 17 balls.

In the ODI, Jayasuriya became the fourth batsman to score more than 10,000 runs, has hit 241 sixes, which is the current world record for the maximum number of sixes. In 2006, Jayasuriya along with Upul Tharanga put 286 runs for the first wicket, which is a new ODI record. Jayasuriya was chosen as Man of the Series for this series. In April 2008, Jayasuriya joined the Mumbai Indians to play in the Indian Premier League.

Major individual achievements

Jayasuriya is the second highest run scorer in ODIs with 12,207 runs.

He is the only batsman in the world to score two consecutive ODI scores above 150.

He holds the record for scoring the maximum runs in an ODI over, which are thirty and he has managed this feat twice.