Happy Birthday Sanath Jayasuriya: Top moments from his iconic career
The superstar southpaw from Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya, is undoubtedly one of the greatest batsmen to have graced the game of cricket. He redefined batting at the top-order with his revolutionary idea of power-hitting in the early stages of an innings.
The sheer power, coupled with his near-flawless stroke-play, made him a nightmare for the opposition teams. He sits fourth on the all-time run-makers’ table, with well over 20,000 international runs. Also a very useful bowler, Jayasuriya was very effective with his left-arm orthodox bowling. He is one of the only five spin bowlers so far, to have a wicket-tally of more than 300 in the ODIs.
If the ball was pitched outside the line of off-stump, it would be smashed between third-man and cover. If the ball was pitched near middle-stump, it would fly between fine-leg and mid-wicket.
The margin of error when Sanath Jayasuriya was batting was so tiny!
The Sri Lankan legend revolutionized the approach taken by batsmen in the first 15 overs in ODI cricket. Instead of trying to see off the new ball, Sanath wanted to score as much as possible during the field restrictions - a game-plan he used during the 1996 World Cup with amazing results and because of which, Sri Lanka won the tournament, much to the surprise of many.
During his magnificent career of 22 years, Sanath has had some very memorable moments across his career. Let's take a look at some of those: