Aravinda de Silva's cricket career in numbers

Aravinda de Silva’s cricket career in numbers: One of the game’s best entertainers Aravinda de Silva believed more in silken touch than brute power. Unruffable temperament, solid technique and ability to judge the length early were his hallmarks. Sri Lanka owe every bit of glory for their maiden ODI World Cup win of 1996 to him. What was noteworthy was the level of his enthusiasm even as he grew old. Even in his last tournament internationally, the 2003 World Cup he was pretty useful with his canny off spinners and classy display of batting. As he completes the golden jubilee of his life let us look at the Statistical highlights of his fantastic career:

Aravinda de Silva’s cricket career in numbers:

1. He is till date the only player to make a hundred and take 3 or more wickets in a World Cup final, a feat he achieved in 1996.

2. He scored a century in each innings of a Test on two separate occasions. (only bettered by India’s Sunil Gavaskar and Australia’s Ricky Ponting, who each performed this feat three times)

3. He made his Test match debut in 1984 at Lord’s against England. His first ODI match was against New Zealand at Moratuwa the same year.

4. He is the first and only player to score two not out centuries in the same Test match. He did so against Pakistan at Colombo in 1997.

5. He finished the year 1997 with 1220 runs at a fantastic average of 76.25.

6. De Silva’s highest Test score of 267 was made at Basin Reserve in 1991 against New Zealand.

7. He scored the second double ton in his final Test innings and also picked up a wicket with his final delivery in Test cricket.

8. 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.

9. Though Sri Lanka won the three nation Champions Trophy tournament in 1995, de Silva ended with a modest 117 runs at an average of 29.25.

10. De Silva’s 145 from 115 balls against Kenya was the highest ever score for Sri Lanka in ODIs then, and the third highest in 1996 World Cup.

Also Read – Top 10 Pure batsmen with most ODI wickets

11. In the World cup quarter-final in 1996 against India, Sri Lanka were in trouble but de Silva lead the recovery job scoring 66 from 47 balls helping the Lankans post 252. After India were 120 for 8 the match was abandoned due to crowd trouble at Eden Gardens.

12. In the World Cup Final in 1996 he took 3 wickets for 42 runs and then hit 107 not out to secure Sri Lanka a convincing 7 wicket victory over Australia.

13. Aravinda de Silva has scored 20 Test and 11 ODI centuries.

14. He captained Sri Lanka in six Tests and wasn’t able to secure a single win. Two were draws while Sri Lanka lost the rest four.

15. In ODIs he lead the side in 18 games with 5 victories and 12 losses.

16. Aravinda has 22 Test, 64 ODI half-centuries.

17. In Tests he has won 11 Man of the Match and 4 Man of the series awards.

18. In ODIs De Silva has won 31 Man of the Match and 3 man of the series awards.

19. His last Test was against Bangladesh at Colombo in 2002. His last ODI, and last game in international cricket was the 2003 World Cup semi final against Australia.

20. The classy batsman played 308 ODIs and scored 9284 runs at an average of 34 with his highest being 145. He also took 106 wickets in these games with his best being 4-30.

21. In 93 Tests he made 6361 runs at an average of 42.9 with a best of 267. In these matches he also picked up 29 wickets.

22. His average was the highest batting at number 4 in ODIs and number 3 in Tests.