Mahela only centurion for Lanka in 25 ODI's (6 July 1999)

6 July 1999

Mahela only centurion for Lanka in 25 ODI's

Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka's dismal performances in their last 25 one-day internationals which ultimately led to them losing their title as world one-day champions has caused many a heartburn to their ardent followers.

They in fact won only seven of these matches, losing 18, which easily is their worst record since winning the World Cup.

One of the main reasons for Sri Lanka's decline has been their much vaunted batting which coupled with brilliant fielding won them the World Cup in 1996. They were able to sustain the winning tempo for a further two years, before the final rot started to set in from the mini-World Cup tournament in Dhaka last October.

Since then, the former world champions' progress have been downhill and the individual performances of the players (given below) gives the reasons as to why.

Of the last 25 one-day matches, only Mahela Jayawardene has made a century (in fact two) while the contributions from the 'big guns' in the batting - Sanath Jayasuriya, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Marvan Atapattu, Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga and Roshan Mahanama have been rather disappointing.

Hashan Tillekeratne, who does not command a regular place in the one-day team because of his sedate batting, boasts of the best average - 45.70, no doubt helped largely by being unbeaten on five occasions.

Ranatunga is the only player to appear in all 25 matches and has the highest batting aggregate - 584.

Source :: The Daily News (https://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/)