Rampant Jayasuriya tore up ODI playbook and blasted Sri Lanka to take world crown
Richard Edwards looks back to 1996 when the big guns were spiked by the Sub-continent’s least fancied country
When Sri Lanka arrived at the 1996 World Cup they were seen as little more than makeweights in a tournament that most believed would be dominated by Pakistan, India and Australia. By the time they had lifted the trophy in front of over 60,000 fans at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore they hadn’t so much upset the odds as torn up the rulebook and changed the face of the sport.
Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana were hardly unknown quantities when the tournament began with England taking on New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Valentine’s Day 1996, but by the time it finished 35 days later they were the names on the lips of every fan who had just been offered a tantalising glimpse of cricket’s future.
That match against New Zealand was nothing out of the ordinary, with England ultimately finishing 11 runs short of the Kiwis’ score of 239. It was very much business as usual, with a run rate of 4.78 representing a decent lick in the 50-over game.
“If you got 240 back then, you thought you had given yourself a decent chance,” says Phil DeFreitas, a member of that England squad. “The mindset was that getting five an over to win a game wasn’t straightforward.”
Sri Lanka had plenty of time to consider the folly of that approach, with Australia refusing to travel to Colombo over safety fears – a decision which handed the home side a two-point walkover that simultaneously gave them a flying start and built on the ill-feeling between the countries as a result of the no-balling of Muttiah Muralitharan by Darrell Hair in Melbourne two months before.
By the time the Sri Lankan’s campaign began, they were champing at the bit. Zimbabwe were their first victims, with the hosts smashing Andy Flower’s side by six wickets with 78 balls remaining. Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana, though, fluffed their early lines, falling for 6 and 0 against Heath Streak and giving little indication of the pyrotechnics that were about to follow.
In many ways the 1996 World Cup began where the 1992 World Cup left off, with run rates and tactics largely the same as they had been for a generation. Big scores were reserved for the standard destruction of minnows – South Africa and New Zealand both posted totals in excess of 300 against the UAE and the Netherlands in the first week of the tournament – but bowlers from the established Test nations were generally treated with respect.
The first sign of a change came in the stifling heat of Delhi when, in response to India’s total of 271, Sri Lanka’s openers went berserk in the first three overs, pulverising the bowling of Manoj Prabhakar and Javagal Srinath, as Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana scored 42 runs. The purists, not to mention India’s then skipper Mohammad Azharuddin, were left scratching their heads.
Sri Lanka’s progress slowed sufficiently for them to eventually scrape home with just eight balls remaining but the opening pair had set the tone for the country’s unlikely tilt at World Cup glory and if any doubts still remained they were swept aside at breakneck speed in their next match against Kenya.
Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana sent the ball disappearing to all corners of the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy, posting an opening partnership of 83 in just 40 balls. That, though, was merely the warm-up act to former Kent star, Aravinda de Silva who destroyed Kenya’s bowlers alongside his captain Arjuna Ranatunga.
De Silva scored 145 off only 115 balls, while Ranatunga hit 13 fours and a six during a brief 40-ball stay that delivered 75 breathtaking runs.
Sri Lanka’s eventual total of 398-5 was a world record, comfortably eclipsing the 363 scored off 55 overs by England against Pakistan in 1992. It did, in short, take one-day scoring onto an entirely new plain and encouraged one of the most destructive batting line-ups ever assembled to throw caution to the wind whenever they stepped onto the park.
With Jayasuriya murderous on anything slightly off-line, upper-cuts for six where becoming this Sri Lankan side’s trademark – and having topped their group in the qualification stage, Ranatunga’s men now had their sights set firmly on England.
Writing in The Times, Michael Henderson, spelt out the gravity of the challenge facing an England side that had been far from convincing throughout the tournament.
“They have consistently used the first 15 overs, when field placing restrictions apply, better than any other team,” he wrote. “Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana have proved inspired openers, utterly uninhibited. Where most teams set 65 or 70 as an acceptable platform after 15 overs, Sri Lanka aim to exceed 100 and usually do.”
Over 20 years on, that’s the accepted way of going about batting in 50-over cricket but back in 1996 it was a seismic change of approach. Little wonder that England’s bowlers were shifting nervously at the end of their mark after setting Sri Lanka a target of just 235.
Watching on, open-mouthed from the behind the stumps as Sri Lanka began their reply, was Jack Russell.
“They came out and played with no shackles, no mental shackles at all,” he says.
“They just came out and went wild. We had never seen anything like it. I remember Phil DeFreitas bowling a good
They have consistently used the first 15 overs, when field placing restrictions apply, better than any other team
length ball to Jayasuriya and he just deposited it straight onto the pavilion roof, which was a huge hit. I can still hear myself saying, ‘oh my God’.
“We were just looking at each other shaking our heads.”
Even the fans in the stands in Faisalabad were left running for cover as Sri Lanka, despite losing Kaluwitharana after he had hit his first two balls for four, ran amok.
Chief wrecker was Jayasuriya, who scored 82 from just 44 balls, as Richard Illingworth, Peter Martin and, particularly, DeFreitas were put to the sword. Jayasuriya’s 50 came off just 30 balls, equalling the tournament record. DeFreitas, meanwhile, could only watch with a mixture of awe and regret as his first two overs disappeared for 32. Sri Lanka sauntered home with 56 balls remaining.
Remarkably, the defeat prevented England from maintaining their perfect record of reaching at least the semi-finals of every World Cup they had played in. The partying Sri Lankans cared little for leaving that anomaly in tatters.
“The dressing room after the game was deathly quiet,” says Russell. “I think most of us were still in shock. They played it like a T20 game – and that format hadn’t even been invented yet.”
Sri Lanka travelled on to Kolkata to take on India and when their opening three scored just two runs between them it looked as though the hosts rather than the pretenders would be heading to Lahore. Not a bit of it. With Jayasuriya starring with the ball rather than the bat – taking 3-12 off seven overs – a rioting crowd forced an early end to a game awarded to Sri Lanka as India languished on 120-8, way off their target of 252.
Australia were dismissed with similar relish in the final as Ranatunga’s men claimed a World Cup triumph that few had thought possible. De Silva and the captain eventually sealed the win as Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana again missed out.
It was the batting of the opening pair, though, that thrilled – and started a revolution that hasn’t slowed since.