Upul Tharanga

Warushavithana Upul Tharanga (born 2 February 1985 in Balapitiya, commonly known as Upul Tharanga) is a Sri Lankan cricketer. He is a left-handed opening batsman and wicketkeeper.
Upul Tharanga had his education at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda. He started his cricket career as a teenager at his school. Having played for Nondescripts since the age of 15, he played for Sri Lanka's under-15, under-17 and under-19 squads. He had a successful under-19 World Cup in 2004 with successful innings of 117 and 61 in successive games. He was sent by the Sri Lankan cricketing board to play league cricket for Loughton Cricket Club in Essex.
Tharanga's Sri Lankan call-up in July 2005 made for a mixed 2005, after his family home was washed away by the Asian tsunami. His equipment, which was also washed away, was replaced by Kumar Sangakkara. Tharanga graduated to the "A" team and in July he was selected for the full squad.
On the 2006 tour of England he really began to develop, particularly in the one-day game, scoring over 300 runs in Sri Lanka's 5-0 whitewash of the hosts. In addition, Tharanga is also well-known for taking part in a record-breaking first wicket partnership with Sanath Jayasuriya in the final match of this series. He finished off with 109 off 102 balls, and played a pivotal role in completing the whitewash against England.
Tharanga lost his form in the 2007 World Cup scoring only one half century (against New Zealand) he then continued his poor run of form in the home series against England in 2007 where he failed to contribute and often fell before the 10th over often resulting in a middle-order collapse. Subsequently he lost his ODI place to Malinda Warnapura and his test place to Michael Vandort but he remains within the squad.
He has also come in for special praise from Jayasuriya, one of the greats of cricket, saying that he could be the next captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team.

One Day International Centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of ODI centuries scored by Upul Tharanga

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of the player's career

One Day International Centuries of Upul Tharanga
	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	105	5	Bangladesh	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R Premadasa Stadium	2005
[2]	103	12	New Zealand	Christchurch, New Zealand	Jade Stadium	2006
[3]	120	23	England	London, England	Lord's	2006
[4]	109	27	England	Leeds, England	Headingley	2006
[5]	105	31	Bangladesh	Mohali, Chandigarh, India	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	2006
[6]	121	32	Zimbabwe	Motera, Ahmedabad, India	Sardar Patel Stadium	2006
[7]	118	86	India	Kolkata, India	Eden Gardens	2009
[8]	118*	90	Bangladesh	Dhaka, Bangladesh	S.B National Stadium	2009

Mahela Jayawardene

Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene, known as Mahela Jayawardene (born 27 May 1977), is the former captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He is a specialist batsman who has a Test average of over 50, and an ODI average in the 30s. Despite his relatively low ODI average, Jayawardene is considered to be one of the best batsmen produced by Sri Lanka and is generally held in high regard as a legend of the modern game along with team-mate Kumar Sangakkara. In 2006, he was named by the International Cricket Council as the best international captain of the year and he was nominated in 2007 as the best Test cricket player of the year. He is also known for his fielding skills in the inner ring, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the most number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the fifth highest run-out/match ratio in ODI's.^[1] Statistics also reveal that c Jayawardene b Muralitharan is the most common bowler-fielder combination in the history of Test cricket.
Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to Pakistan for a Test series in March – April 2009. The series was conducted after the Indian team withdrew from playing in Pakistan, following the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. The first Test ended in a draw. Even though he scored a double century in the first Test, Jayawardene was to resign from captaincy after the second Test in the series. Sri Lanka was in a good position in the Test with Thilan Samaraweera hitting his second successive double hundred of the series and Tillakaratne Dilshan scoring a century. On their way to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day's play, the bus that carried the Sri Lankan players was fired at by 12 masked gunmen. Jayawardene, along with six other Sri Lankan cricketers sustained injuries. Six policemen that guarded the bus and two civilians were killed in the attack.^[2] He currently plays for the Kochi IPL Team ^[3]

Career

Early and domestic career

Jayawardene was educated at one of the leading schools in Sri Lanka, Nalanda College Colombo. It was there that he learned to play cricket. He developed his talents through the school cricket team, eventually becoming captain. He was runner-up for the best schoolboy cricketer award during the 1994 cricketing season.
Domestically he has played for Sinhalese Sports Club since 1995. He was signed to play as an overseas player for Derbyshire for the first half of the 2008 English cricket season. However, his commitments to Sri Lanka and involvement in the Indian Premier League prevented him from playing any part in the 2008 county season.^[4]

International career

Mahela Jayawardene is the 69th Sri Lanka Test Cap [Sri Lanka Vs India at Colombo 1997]. Jayawardene made his Test debut in the record breaking Test in 1997 against India at R.P.S., Colombo. Jayawardene added 66 to Sri Lanka's first innings score of 952/6, the highest Test score ever. He was at the crease when the previous highest Test score was surpassed. Early in his career he scored 167 against New Zealand and 242 against India.
Jayawardene's One Day International debut was against Zimbabwe at Premadasa in January 1998. Sri Lanka won the match, with Jayawardene hitting the winning run. In the next game Jayawardene scored 74. It took only 11 matches before he scored his first century, which was against England in the Carlton and United World Series game at Adelaide. Jayawardene entered a pressure situation, with Sri Lanka struggling at 134/4 in the run chase, but made an innings of 120 runs to win the match. The match is notable for Ross Emerson's no-balling of Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing, which led the Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga to lead his team to the edge of the field and consider walking out of the match, as well as physical shoulder-barging by some players.
Jayawardene was captain during the England tour in 2006 in the absence of Marvan Atapattu. He led his team to 1–1 draw in the Test series and an emphatic whitewash (5–0) in the ODI series.

Jayawardene batting in a Test match for Sri Lanka in 2008

In the first Test of the 2006 Test series against South Africa, Jayawardene shared a world record stand of 624 with Kumar Sangakkara. This partnership, the highest for any wicket in first-class cricket history, and the first instance of a stand of 600 or more in a first-class or Test match innings, smashed the previous third wicket stance for Sri Lanka, surpassing 262 which involved himself along with Thilan Samaraweera. It also broke the previous record for the third wicket for all Test playing nations surpassing the 467 run partnership made by the New Zealand's Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones.
Jayawardene became the first Sri-Lankan captain to score a Test triple-century, making 374 off 572 deliveries with 43 fours and 1 six, the fourth highest individual score in Test match cricket and the best by a right-hander. He is also the first batsman to pass 350 in a Test without going on to break the world record. He also surpassed the highest score by a Sri Lankan in a Test match, previously Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 in 1997 against India, coincedentally also produced in a world record partnership.
He was also chosen as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2007. In the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Jayawardene hit one century and four half-centuries and was the second highest run-scorer in the list topped by Australia's Matthew Hayden. His century, which came against New Zealand helped Sri Lanka win the Semi-Final. Sri Lanka finished runners-up in the World Cup losing to Australia in the Final.
He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations. He achieved this feat on the 21 st of February 2009 by scoring his maiden Test century against Pakistan at the National Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan.
Mahela is the Recipient of International Cricket Council's "Captain of the Year 2006" inaugural award, Captain of the "World One-Day International Team of the Year 2006", Captain of the "Spirit of Cricket Award 2007" Team, Wisden Cricketer of the Year 2007, Record holder for the highest score (374 runs) by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket. He retired from the captaincy due to lack of form and politics in the board.
However, he regained some form during the IPL 2010. Before starting their chase of 201 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders, Jayawardene expressed his desire to open the innings to captain Kumar Sangakkara. Sangakkara agreed to his fellow countrymate and Jayawardene scored a blazing 110* off just 59 balls winning them the match in the second last over. Sangakkara, impressed my his teammate set him as opener for the Kings XI Punjab. He scored a few more entertaining knocks in vain including 44 against Rajasthan Royals and 93* against Deccan Chargers. He ended the tournament with an average of 43.90. He was the 6th highest run scorer for the tournament and highest for the Kings XI Punjab.
With Kumar Sangakkara as the Sri Lankan Captain too, Jaywardene was sent as opener for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. In the first match against New Zealand, he scored 81 off just 51 balls. However, this knock went in vain due to the collapse in the Sri Lankan batting line-up after his wicket fell which resulted in a total of only 135 on board batting first. However, in his very next match against Zimbabwe, he scored 100 of just 64 balls helping them win the match helping them win the match defending a total of 173. He thus became the 4th player to get a century in an International Twenty20 Game and the first Sri Lankan to do so. Sri Lanka won the match by D/L method. In the very next match against West Indies, he scored 98* off just 56 balls narrowly missing his second century in a row. This became his third consecutive score above 80.

Personal life

Mahela was born to Sunila and Senerath Jayawardene at Colombo in 1977. He had one younger brother, Dhishal who died of a brain tumour, aged 16. This affected Jayawardene psychologically, halting his cricket career for some time. Eventually he was persuaded to go on and set about rebuilding his career by his parents and teammates.
He is married to Christina Mallika Sirisena, a travel consultant.
Off the field, he has won praise for his personal contribution to the HOPE cancer project.^[5] With memories of Dhishal in mind, he became the leading campaigner of HOPE. Now, with the support of his team-mates, he aims to build a new 750-bed cancer unit at Maharagama, the country's only dedicated cancer hospital.

Player Statistics

Career Performance

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Jayawardene's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Test performance against each opponent

As of 05 December 2010:

Opponent	Matches	Innings	Not out	Runs	High Score	100	50	Average
Australia	10	18	0	581	104	1	1	32.27
Bangladesh	11	14	1	860	166	4	1	65.54
England	16	27	3	1581	213*	6	7	65.87
India	18	28	1	1822	275	6	8	67.48
New Zealand	11	19	1	928	167	3	5	51.55
Pakistan	18	34	2	1115	240	1	7	34.84
South Africa	12	22	1	1472	374	5	2	70.09
West Indies	12	18	1	748	136	1	4	44.00
Zimbabwe	8	10	3	420	100*	1	3	60.00
TOTAL	116	90	13	9527	374	28	38	53.82

Centuries

Main article: List of international cricket centuries by Mahela Jayawardene

Awards

Test Cricket – Man of the Series awards

• In this table Ct., refers to the Catches and St. refers to the Stumping

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	Sri Lanka in England Test Series	2002	272 (3 Matches, 6 Innings); 2 Ct.	Won the series 2–0
2	England in Sri Lanka Test Series	2007/08	474 (3 Matches, 4 Innings); 5 Ct.	Won the series 1–0

Test Cricket – Man of the match awards

• In this table Ct., refers to the Catches and St. refers to the Stumping

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	1st Test – New Zealand in Sri Lanka	1997	1st Innings – 167 (4x18) 2nd Innings – 1 Ct.	Won by 16 runs
2	2nd Test- Asian Test Championship	1998/99	1st Innings – 242 (4x30, 6x2)	Match drawn
3	1st Test – South Africa in Sri Lanka	2004	1st Innings – 237 (4x25, 6x3); 1 Ct. 2nd Innings – 5; 1 Ct.	Match drawn
4	2nd Test – Sri Lanka in England	2006	1st Innings – 61 (4x9); 2 Ct. 2nd Innings – 119 (4x12)	Match drawn
5	1st Test – South Africa in Sri Lanka	2006	1st Innings – 374 (4x43, 6x1) 2nd Innings – 1 Ct.	Won by 153 runs
6	2nd Test – South Africa in Sri Lanka	2006	1st Innings – 13 (4x2); 2 Ct. 2nd Innings – 123 (4x11, 6x2)	Won by 1 wicket
7	2nd Test – England in Sri Lanka	2007/08	1st Innings – 195 (4x16, 6x1); 1 Ct. 2nd Innings – 1 Ct.	Match drawn
8	3rd Test – England in Sri Lanka	2007/08	1st Innings – 213* (4x25); 1 Ct. 2nd Innings – 2 Ct.; Run out 1	Match drawn

One-Day International Cricket – Man of the series awards

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	Khaleej Times Trophy (Pak, SL, Zim) in UAE	2001/02	252 (6 Matches); 2 Catches	Won final by 5 wickets
2	Indian Oil Cup (Ind, SL, WI) in Sri Lanka	2005	230 (5 Matches); 1 Catch	Won final by 18 runs
3	Warid Series (Pak, SL) in UAE	2007	162 (3 Matches)	Won the series 2–1
4	Afro-Asia Cup (Asia XI, Africa XI) in India	2007	217 (3 Matches); 1 Catch	Asia XI Won the series 3–0

One-Day International Cricket – Man of the Match Awards

	Runs	Against	City/Country	Venue	Result	Year
[1]	120	England	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	won by 1 wicket	1999
[2]	101	Pakistan	Visakhapatnam, India	Indira Priyadarshini Stadium	won by 12 runs	1999
[3]	101*	England	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	won by 66 runs	2001
[4]	116	New Zealand	Sharjah, United Arab Emirates	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	won by 106 runs	2001
[5]	63	Zimbabwe	Sharjah, United Arab Emirates	Sharjah C.A. Stadium	won by 79 runs	2001
[6]	96	Zimbabwe	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	won by 59 runs	2001
[7]	106*	West Indies	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Asgiriya Stadium	won by 8 wickets	2001
[8]	94*	India	Dambulla, Sri Lanka	Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium	won by 4 wickets	2005
[9]	83	India	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	won by 18 runs	2005
[10]	50	Bangladesh	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	won by 88 runs	2005
[11]	126*	England	Chester-le-Street, England	Riverside Ground	won by 8 wickets	2006
[12]	100	England	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	won by 33 runs	2006
[13]	115	New Zealand	Jamaica, West Indies	Sabina Park	won by 81 runs	2007 (World Cup Semi Final

 Product and brand endorsements

• Mobitel (Sri Lanka)^[6]
• DSI holdings Ltd.^[7]
• Reebok - ^[8]