Sanath set to make his presence felt in Asia Cup

Chris Dhambarage

Veteran Sanath Jayasuriya is set to make his presence felt in another major event in the sub-continent during the ninth edition of the six nation Asia Cup limited overs cricket tournament in Pakistan.

The dashing left hand opening batsman has always stole the limelight in this part of the region and his heroics in the 1996 World Cup tournament are some of his notable achievements since breaking into the international scene in 1989.

In fact Jayasuriya has completely dominated the proceedings with both bat and ball in the previous Asia Cup tournaments where he is currently the highest run getter as well as the most successful bowler.

Jayasuriya is well set to further extend his dominance in the Asian region following his all round prowess in the recently concluded high profile inaugural Indian Premier League Twenty20 limited overs tournament. In fact he is now only 158 runs short from becoming the first batsman to complete one thousand runs in the Asia Cup tournament.

Jayasuriya’s contribution for his country is quite amazing especially in the slow and flat sub continent tracks where he has plundered the bowling during the early overs and has snapped up some important wickets in the middle of the innings.

Jayasuriya is not only the highest run getter in the Asia Cup history but he also has the most number of hundreds (4) in addition to two half centuries. In addition he has the best strike rate among the top ten run getters and is averaging 46.77 runs from his 20 matches.

India’s Sachin Tendulkar who has played the same number of matches is placed second with an aggregate of 799 runs and averaging 49.93 runs. However Jayasuriya has been dominant with the ball too and is the highest wicket taker with a tally of 20 wickets.

Jayasuriya is certain to add some more wickets to his tally and his closest rivals are his teammates Chaminda Vaas who is placed second with 18 wickets and Muttiah Muralitharan who has 16 wickets to his credit.

Former captain and the present Chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket Interim Committee Arjuna Ranatunga is placed third in the all time most run getters in the Asia Cup history followed by two of his teammates Aravinda de Silva (645) and Marvan Atapattu (642).