Thilan Samaraweera

Thilan Thusara Samaraweera (Sinhala: තිලාන් සමරවීර; born 22 September 1976) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. Samaraweera played international cricket for Sri Lanka as a permanent member in Test squad and is in the side primarily for his solid right-handed batting but is also a capable off spinner. He is the current fielding coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League for 2018.

Thilan Samaraweera
තිලාන් සමරවීර
Personal information
Full nameThilan Thusara Samaraweera
Born (1976-09-21) 21 September 1976
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm off break
RoleBatsman
RelationsDulip Samaraweera (brother)
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 86)29 August 2001 v India
Last Test3 January 2013 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 97)6 November 1998 v India
Last ODI2 April 2011 v India
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1996–1998Colts Cricket Club
1998–2013Sinhalese Sports Club
2008–2010Kandurata
2011Wayamba
2012Kandurata Warriors
2013Worcestershire (squad no. 3)
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 81 53 271 194
Runs scored 5,462 862 15,501 3,568
Batting average 48.76 27.80 48.59 32.73
100s/50s 14/30 2/0 43/76 2/19
Top score 231 105* 231 105*
Balls bowled 1,327 702 17,961 4,769
Wickets 15 11 357 110
Bowling average 45.93 49.27 23.43 28.89
5 wickets in innings 0 0 15 2
10 wickets in match 0 n/a 2 n/a
Best bowling 4/49 3/34 6/55 7/30
Catches/stumpings 45/– 17/– 202/– 66/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 18 August 2014

Personal life

Thilan Samaraweera born in Colombo and had his education at Ananda College, Colombo. He is married to Erandathie Samaraweera and has two daughters: Osuni and Sidhya. His brother, Dulip Samaraweera, also played Test cricket, appearing in seven Tests from 1993 to 1995. His brother-in-law Bathiya Perera has represented Sri Lanka A.

International career

Samaraweera started his career as an off-spinner who could bat a bit and could not find a way into the side due to the emergence of Muttiah Muralitharan. He managed a handful of ODI games in 1998 but did not play Test cricket until August 2001. Having worked on his batting considerably he got due reward by scoring century on debut against a strong Indian side helping Sri Lanka to win the series 2–1. He continued to star with the bat by scoring another two centuries in his next five Tests, all on his home ground, the SSC in Colombo. This stunning start to international cricket cemented his spot in the middle order, a spot which had holes to fill with the retirements of Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne.

His off-spin has been rarely called upon by his captain but when he comes on he has earned a reputation as a partnership breaker.

After a poor Test series in England in which he failed to reach double figures in any of his four innings, he was dropped from the side. He was made captain of Sri Lanka A before earning a recall for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane. He scored 13 and 20 and was promptly dropped when Kumar Sangakkara returned to the side for the second game in Hobart. This was followed by his non-inclusion in the squad to play England in the first Test in Kandy.[1]

Samaraweera was included in the Sri Lankan team to play the Test series in Pakistan in February – March 2009. This series was conducted after the Indian team withdrew from a scheduled series in Pakistan, following the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Samaraweera started off the series in superb form, hitting consecutive double centuries – 231 in the first Test in Karachi and 214 in the second Test in Lahore. He too has the record for the highest individual score for Sri Lanka when batting at number 5 position in tests when he scored 231 v Pakistan. Also Thilan Samaraweera was the first ever Sri Lankan to score a test century at number 8 position and holds the record for the highest score for Sri Lanka jointly with Kithuruwan Vithanage at number 8 position in tests (103*)[2]

In February 2009, he shared a record-breaking partnership of 437 with Mahela Jayawardene. This is a world record for 4th wicket in Test cricket. The previous Test record was held by an English pair—Peter May and Colin Cowdrey—who put on 411 against West Indies at Birmingham in May 1957. The record stood for 6 years until surpassed on 11 December 2015 by two Aussies Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh with 449 for fourth wicket against West Indies.[3]

In September 2009, he got his maiden ODI century against New Zealand national cricket team at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, almost eleven years after his ODI debut.

In 2011, after poor form with the bat during a home series against Australia, he was dropped from Sri Lanka's team for the series against Pakistan. He was also left out of the squad to tour South Africa, but was given a late call-up to cover for Mahela Jayawardene due to a knee injury.[4] He scored two centuries in the three-Test series, and moved into the top ten of the ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen for the first time in his career.[5]

Samaraweera holds the record for scoring the most runs in ODI cricket with only scoring centuries without even dismissed between 50–99, he never had scores of unbeaten innings between 50–99. He has scored 2 ODI hundreds without a single ODI fifty.[6]

Lahore attack

Samaraweera, along with five other Sri Lanka cricketers, were injured in the 3 March 2009 attack on the bus that carried the Sri Lanka cricketers to the Gaddafi Stadium. He was hospitalised with a thigh injury.[7] Samaraweera was the most seriously injured player amongst them. Six policemen that guarded the bus and two civilians were killed in the attack.

Coaching career

In November 2017, he was named as Sri Lanka's batting coach till 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.[8]

International centuries

The following tables illustrate a summary of the centuries scored by Thilan Samaraweera

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

Test Centuries

Test centuries of Thilan Samaraweera[9]
No.RunsMatchAgainstCity/CountryVenueYear
1103*1 India Colombo, Sri LankaSinhalese Sports Club Ground2001
2123*6 Zimbabwe Colombo, Sri LankaSinhalese Sports Club Ground2001
314214 England Colombo, Sri LankaSinhalese Sports Club Ground2003
410023 Pakistan Faisalabad, PakistanIqbal Stadium2004
513830 Bangladesh Colombo, Sri LankaP. Saravanamuttu Stadium2005
612542 West Indies Port of Spain, Trinidad and TobagoQueen's Park Oval2008
712743 India Colombo, Sri LankaSinhalese Sports Club Ground2008
823147 Pakistan Karachi, PakistanNational Stadium2009
921448 Pakistan Lahore, PakistanGaddafi Stadium2009
1015953 New Zealand Galle, Sri LankaGalle International Stadium2009
1114354 New Zealand Colombo, Sri LankaSinhalese Sports Club Ground2009
12137*60 India Colombo, Sri LankaP. Saravanamuttu Stadium2010
1310270 South Africa Durban, South AfricaKingsmead Cricket Ground2011
14115*71 South Africa Cape Town, South AfricaNewlands Cricket Ground2012

One Day International Centuries

ODI centuries of Thilan Samaraweera
No.RunsMatchAgainstCity/CountryVenueYear
110422 New Zealand Colombo, Sri LankaR. Premadasa Stadium2009
2105*30 India Dhaka, BangladeshSher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium2010

International awards

Man of the Match awards

No Opponent Venue Date Match Performance Result
1 England Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney 3 February 1999 DNB ; 9-0-34-3  Sri Lanka won by 11 runs.[10]

See also

Notes

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