Thisara seeks bowling mojo at 'lucky' MCG

Outside the island, no city is home to more Sri Lankans than Melbourne. All through the city, Sinhala is heard in trams and greengrocers. Jaffna Tamil is spoken in restaurants and doctor's offices. It is Melbourne too, that has become a favourite overseas residence for former players, as well as the city that produced the first Australia cricketer of Sri Lankan heritage, in Ashton Agar.

Melbourne Sri Lankans, who have often flocked in numbers to see Sri Lanka play in the city, have witnessed landmark moments in Sri Lanka's cricket history. On Boxing Day 1995, Muttiah Muralitharan was no-balled for throwing at the MCG, as the largest Test-match crowd Sri Lanka had played for watched on. Seventeen years later, Sri Lanka slumped to a Test defeat so severe, it spawned the still-ongoing intensive quest for regeneration.

In between those two Test ignominies, there has been one bright limited-overs memory for Melbourne's Sri Lanka fans. What most Sri Lanka fans cherish of the match now dubbed the 'Melbourne Miracle' is this: Sri Lanka were 108 for 8 chasing 240 before Lasith Malinga joined Angelo Mathews and the pair put on a record 132-run ninth-wicket stand to tie the match. The winning runs would soon come from Muttiah Muralitharan's blade.

Less remembered is what came before that partnership, or Sri Lanka's collapse. On a track expected to be full of runs, Thisara Perera first moved one off the seam to have Micheal Clarke caught behind, then next over, removed Brad Haddin and Cameron White off consecutive deliveries. In later spells, he would have Steven Smith edging behind as well, before taking another wicket in the final over. That 5 for 46 remain his best away figures, and he would return to the MCG to have fine outings for Brisbane Heat, at the Big Bash League.

"The pitches in Australia have a lot in them for quicks," Perera said. "And the MCG is a ground that I really like. I've got good memories of that five-wicket haul, and in a few T20 matches I've played here, I've been the man of the match. I think it's a lucky ground for me."

Sri Lanka's selectors had long marked out Perera as a key player for the World Cup, largely because of his bowling successes in the country, over three Australian seasons. In 15 ODIs in Australia, Perera has used his height, seam movement and bustling pace to take 21 wickets at an average of 25.66. However, as the World Cup approached, his bowling form subsided. Series against India and New Zealand often saw Perera bowl too waywardly to complete his 10-over quota. That slump was accompanied by meagre returns with the bat.

"Any player has periods when their rhythm could go missing, and I think that's what happened to me" Perera said. "In the India tour and New Zealand tour, I wasn't able to deliver what I was supposed to. I'm here as a bowling allrounder, so my main objective is to bowl 10 overs without giving away too many runs. When I bowl my 10 overs, it's easy for the captain to work with the rest of the attack. We can use our part-timers more effectively as well. It's much better that way than if Angelo and I are bowling five each."

Perera's dip eventually forced Sri Lanka to drop him from the XI for the World Cup curtain-raiser, but he returned against Afghanistan to deliver 10 overs, conceding 54 and taking a wicket. Those figures were unremarkable on their own, but Perera's inclusion did allow for greater batting depth, which would later prove crucial to the winning of that game. Perera arrived at the crease with 55 left to get, and four wickets and 52 balls remaining. He'd bludgeon 47 of those runs, off 26 balls.

"I actually really like to bat in pressure situations like that as well, and I've done that in the past," Perera said. "I was happy with being able to finish the game, and I'm hoping that that confidence affects my bowling as well. Usually when I'm doing well in one discipline, the other automatically falls into place. I've made a few small changes to my bowling as well, and I think I've got more pace now, so hopefully that comes good."

Last week, Mahela Jayawardene had singled out Perera as a vital element of Sri Lanka's campaign. The past year has seen Perera vacillate between extremes of performance: he hit the winning runs in the World T20, and was player of the series against Pakistan, but was dropped either side of those performances. The challenge to him, as for his team, is to rediscover the powers that saw them burn so brightly in parts of 2014.